[ISN] monicalewinsky.com site hacked

From: mea culpa (jerichoat_private)
Date: Thu Mar 04 1999 - 20:47:06 PST

  • Next message: mea culpa: "[ISN] Raytheon suit raises Internet privacy questions"

    http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2220603,00.html
    
    mirror: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/www.monicalewinsky.com
    
    Monicalewinsky.com site hacked
    An anti-Bill Clinton screed replaces entrepreneur's Lewinsky site.
    By Martha Stone, ZDNN
    March 4, 1999 3:43 PM PT
    
    The owners of Monicalewinsky.com -- who want to trade the domain name to
    the real Monica -- found the placeholder site hacked today with an
    anti-Bill Clinton message. 
    
    Siteleader.com, a small, Wilmette, Ill.-based domain name and hosting
    company, is hoping to give the domain to Lewinsky, in exchange for placing
    branding banners for the firm on the bottom of each page. 
    
    "I think there is no doubt that she'll use this domain name," said Raul
    Heredia, Site Leader Inc.  vice president, noting that celebrities have
    traditionally told all on TV, books and radio. 
    
    "The Internet allows you to put out what you want to put out. Now it's
    simple -- she can tell her story on the Internet." 
    
    But the site had a temporary setback today in its Monica quest. Instead of
    a vanity site for Lewinsky, visitors found a rant against President
    Clinton and a link to a "Free Kevin Mitnick" site, placed by an
    infiltrator called MagicFX. 
    
    Hack still registering While the Monicalewinsky.com hack didn't bring the
    Site Leader server to its knees, the apparent password break-in did cause
    a disruption in service and headaches. 
    
    As of 5 p.m. ET Thursday, the hacked version of the site still registered
    in several places, particularly those that tend to cache popular sites to
    optimize bandwidth. Heredia said the site had been restored early this
    afternoon. 
    
    "In the future, we will keep hackers out of it," he said. "Hackers are a
    real pain." 
    
    Site Leader's Monica site features a photograph of Lewinsky and Clinton
    and a short note: "This site is reserved for Monica Lewinsky to use to
    convey to the American People, the TRUE story of the White House Incident.
    The rest of the page is advertising for the Web host." 
    
    But on sites with longer caching periods, such as America Online Inc.
    (NYSE:AOL), Monicalewinsky.com had a much different message: "This domain
    name is up for bids! Own MonicaLewinsky.com. Send your bids now to
    bidsat_private Bids start at $50,000 US." 
    
    Heredia denied that the site was ever up for sale, chalking up the message
    to miscommunication in the seven-person staff. 
    
    Let's make a deal As the site returns to its intended message, Site Leader
    is focusing on making a deal with Lewinsky. 
    
    Heredia says he contacted Lewinsky's lawyers last fall, and was asked to
    call again after the investigation and trial were over. He said he plans
    to call the lawyers next week to commence negotiations about a Web site. 
    
    ZDNN's attempts to reach Lewinsky, her lawyer and her public relations
    representative were unsuccessful. 
    
    
    -o-
    Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn".
    Today's ISN Sponsor: Internet Security Institute [www.isi-sec.com]
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:20:17 PDT