Will's Web Watch: Revenge is a dish best served online

"Hit 'em where it hurts" is a popular refrain among those plotting revenge. Whether it's hitting somebody in the wallet, stinging their pride - or whatever they hold most dear - or simply kicking them in the balls, there is an element of malicious planning which goes into the execution of any act of retribution, from the subtle and the devious to the sledgehammer and blunderbuss approach.

More and more common in these web-savvy times is the idea of hitting somebody's website. It is often the embodiment of many dear characteristics or values, from vain self-publicity to the heartbeat of somebody's business or their means of communicating with a wider audience.

By hitting the website, whether it be hacking and defacing or crippling it with a denial of service attack, the attacker is sending a clear message of intent and violation.

Most famously we've seen attacks against big business. When anti-SCO feeling was at its more vindictive and vicious the MyDoom virus was released - charged with creating a denial of service attack so devastating that it crippled the Utah firm's online presence. When that proved successful the group thought to be behind MyDoom then turned their guns on Microsoft for more of the same.

Then aside from attacks on controversial businesses there are the politically motivated actions of the 'hactivists' who will typically target a government website, such as the self-proclaimed 'Mujihadeen' that defaced two US government websites in 2001 with the message "Allah is the greatest of all... Americans be prepared to die".

Then there are the less grand-scale actions of hackers aggrieved by some form of perceived wrongdoing. Sports teams' websites are a common target. Homepages being defaced with phrases such as "the Dodgers suck ass!" is not uncommon... nor is it particularly witty. But then getting into a sports stadium and getting into Mensa have always been starkly different challenges.

Also in the world of sport there has recently been the instance of notorious football referee Urs Meier who will presumably not be coming to England on a holiday any time soon following a disastrous spell in charge of the whistle during the recent England versus Portugal clash in Euro 2004 which saw England crash out on penalties after an apparently legal goal was ruled out by the Swiss official.

Since that blundering performance Meier has been targeted with large amounts of hate mail via his website. Many took issue with a performance that appeared to owe much to concerns over upsetting the host nation while others simply took issue with the fact a match official should have such an ego as to come up with the website in the first place.

Meier's website was under siege for several days and the barrage of vitriol saw it disappear from the web altogether when the levels of traffic became unserviceable.

It's interesting to note this is a growing trend, so who will be next? The RMT would probably get my vote this week following the tube strike. Then it's worth noting there is a looming presidential election in the US, so we can expect some cyber-skulduggery there as well. In fact more and more we can expect to see everything from large scale DoS attacks to public reactions such as the Urs Meier affair as websites are increasingly recognised as the most visible, accessible and high-profile place to hit someone 'where it hurts'.