Epilepsy Site Hacked with Flashing Lights

In a remarkably tasteless move, hackers broke into the Epilepsy Foundation's web site in April 2008. Emily Bishop from Iowa State Daily writes:

Sometimes computer hackers hack into a Web site as a joke - but the recent hacking of the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site was no laughing matter.

Rapidly flashing images, which can trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy, were put on the Web site, according to the site itself.
...
Doug Jacobson, professor of electrical and computer engineering, said what happened to the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site is "unique in that, usually, a computer by itself can't cause harm." [my emphasis]

"It's getting press because of the uniqueness of what [the hackers] did," Jacobson said. "[Hackers] look for vulnerable software and take advantage of it."

The complete article is here.