The Reaction Time to Web Site Defacements

Abstract

Web site defacement has become a common threat for organizations exposed on the Web. Several statistics indicate the occurrence rate of these incidents but not how long these defacements typically last. The authors present the results of a two-month study of more than 62,000 defacements to determine whether and when a reaction to a defacement occurs. Such reaction times tend to be unacceptably long - often several days - and with a long-tailed distribution.