Web Shorts

For Muslim and Arab groups, hacking = protest
Digital graffiti has become the hippest way for Muslim and Arab hacker groups to register protest against the war in Iraq. Several such groups have broken into web servers and published anti-war messages in place of victims’ web sites. The hacking is fairly simple stuff, and web experts say a spike in this kind of activity is to be expected during tense times. One Estonian organization tracking the defacements says more than 10,000 have occurred since the war began last week. Most are fairly harmless. Yet experts say that as the war escalates, so may the severity of such attacks. The UNIX Security Guards have accounted for the most damage. The group, apparently made up mostly of Egyptians, has attacked nearly 1,000 domains and posted 3,000 faux web pages in the past week. One posting read, “The US do what it wants to the world, we will do what we want to the internet/stop the US terrorists and we will stop!” Several military sites have been defaced during the hacking outbreak. One group even claimed to have hit the White House homepage, but White House officials did not confirm it.

Iraqi war won't hurt tech spending, companies say
Tech spending has sputtered since well before 9/11. But a new survey of U.S. companies finds that most don’t think the war in Iraq will have a significant impact in the area. Less than 12 percent of those surveyed by Info-Tech Research Group thought that the war would affect tech spending. Fifty-seven percent did say they expected the war to impact IT operations in general, but not spending specifically. Of course, that doesn’t mean the worried companies are actually making changes. Only 30 percent reported increasing security to their infrastructures. About one-quarter reported tightening firewall controls and/or monitoring network traffic more closely.

Latest from AOL: You've got (voice)mail
In case instant messaging and email aren't enough for you, America Online now offers one more way to stay in contact every single second. The struggling company began a new paid voicemail service Wednesday that allows for delivery of online and email messages over the phone. It’s part of AOL’s turnaround plan, which began at the end of last year and includes a new bring-your-own-access package being introduced next week. AOL’s third premium service launch in the past year, the new system allows users to see all of their messages, voice and typed, in their email inbox. The system will cost $2 or $3 per month for AOL users who already have voice-related services and $5.95 for others. Other features include a log of the past 100 phone calls, separate boxes for up to seven screen names and a call alert that tells online users who is calling. The call alert premium actually began last year and has 300,000 subscribers.

Movielink builds indie cred through Artisan deal
Coming soon to Movielink: independent films. The online movie site, funded by five major studios, is expanding its content and starting a new marketing effort as its five-month test period ends. The site has signed a deal with Artisan Entertainment, the company that produced independent smash “The Blair Witch Project,” to offer movies and short films for download. The advertising campaign will be mostly web-based to boost consumer awareness of the service. Movielink had expected young males ages 18-24 to dominate traffic. Though most users have been male, they’ve been much older than predicted, mostly 25-49. Observers have speculated that the older skew is because younger users download free movies via Kazaa or Morpheus. Movielink downloads range from $2.95 to $4.99.

Study: Site referrals from search engines grow
A new study by WebSideStory finds that web users are most likely to be referred to sites via search engine and direct navigation. According to data collected from WebSideStory’s StatMarket site, search engines accounted for 13.4 percent of referrals this year versus 7.1 percent the year before. Direct navigation accounted for the most jumps, 65.5 percent, an increase from 50.1 percent last year. Web links plummeted from 42.6 percent to 21 percent this year. An earlier StatMarket study estimated that search engines such as Google, AOL and MSN generate between 8 and 10 percent of e-commerce referrals. Referral numbers in the U.K. were also up, from 11.5 percent to 17.8 percent. In Spain growth was even higher, from 10.8 percent to 21.5 percent; in Brazil, from 8.2 percent to 19 percent.

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