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Or should I say "batten down the firewalls and stand by to repel hackers"

That's what all good web-hosting companies ought to be doing right now, on the eve of what looks to be a rather concerted attempt by hackers to "own" thousands of websites around the world.

The hacker challenge apparently involves trying to deface as many as 6,000 websites in a six-hour period.

No doubt, the vast majority of attacks will be performed by "script-kiddies" looking for poorly maintained servers with known vulnerabilities -- something that's probably not really that much of a challenge given the total number of sites out there.

However, it's a shame that these hackers can't put their energies and talents to better use.

Now I'm not advocating any form of unauthorised hacking but imagine if, instead of wrecking other people's websites, these folks focused their time and attention on setting up a rapid-response network to deal with spammers.

At the first sign of a spam-run, the hackers could identify the server(s) being used and knock them off the Net -- making everyone's day a little happier.

But what about those poor sods who aren't spammers but have had their mailservers hijacked for the purposes of spamming -- wouldn't such a system be unfair on them?

Hell no! If any one is stupid enough to run an open mail relay or an insecure server that allows spammers to hijack it then they deserve to be knocked off the Net. Such machines are a menace and without them a spammer's life would be a whole lot harder.

So come on you hacker chaps. Turn away from the dark side and earn yourself some real credits by hacking the spammers and the boxes they own.

Lighten Up
Time for some more fun, frivolity and fear with your weekly (some would say "weakly" dose of lighten up.

Here's one suggested by an Aardvark reader. Go to Google and type in the phrase: French military victories

Now hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Clearly someone doesn't think much of the French - note the URL and see if you can work out what's going on.

And, as several readers have pointed out this morning (and the Register reports in the headlines below), try the same thing with the phrase: weapons of mass destruction

Hmmm... that's it, my Lighten-up folder is empty!

Come on readers, trawl your bookmarks and send me stuff for next week.

I'm sure most readers will have an opinion on today's column so share your thoughts in the forums!

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