http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59574,00.html By Noah Shachtman July 10, 2003 Pay me, or I'll crash your porno website. That's the threat Internet smut-slingers say they've been receiving from a hacker with a vendetta against the adult industry. And it appears to be more than just tough talk. Several sites have been temporarily taken offline in the last 10 days, battered by massive denial-of-service attacks, according to website operators. At least one of the blue webmasters, getting as many as 745 million hits in a single day, has contacted the FBI in response. Others are simply girding their electronic defenses. And a third group is plotting ways to take revenge against the assailant -- methods that don't involve a keyboard or a mouse. "Engaging in this level of extortion -- I've never seen that before. It's a disturbing development," said Tom Hymes, at AVN Online, the trade magazine for triple-X webmasters. The string of bizarre incidents started June 30, at gofuckyourself.com (or GFY), the best-known bulletin board for adult webmasters. A user, "Deepsy," proclaimed that he would cripple the site in 20 minutes. GFY's administrators had to contact him, he added, to "discuss ... further instructions." GFY members scoffed. But 20 minutes later, the board was down. After about an hour, the attack was called off. Then Deepsy repeated his order to GFY. And began threatening other adult sites, as well. Over the next week, webmasters contend, Deepsy demanded $1,500 each from at least three different sites. The money is supposed to be transferred into a Western Union account within a few hours, or else, Deepsy allegedly told a victim in an instant message, "you will loose your bussines (sic)." Not all the webmasters supposedly contacted by Deepsy have received financial demands, however. Some were simply told, "You're next." The porn purveyors reached by Wired News all swore they had managed to deflect Deepsy -- without paying him off. They were quick to add, though, that others had done just that. "Jay Jay," from the porn site affiliate program Nightbucks.com, said Deepsy backed off after Jay Jay complained about struggling to pay the rent on his apartment and support his two kids. Other webmasters have taken a more conventional approach to what they perceive as their Deepsy problem. One erotica operator, who asked not to be named, said that beefed-up security measures have kept attackers at bay, after Deepsy allegedly crashed his site. This webmaster said he'd like to tell the FBI about his troubles. But he and others in the porn world are reluctant. "It's hard for the adult industries to go to the authorities," he said. "Try going to the FBI computer crimes division and saying you run analsex.com." But that didn't stop Chris Davies. He's filed a complaint with the National Infrastructure Protection Center, whose investigations are handled by the FBI. Bureau spokesman Bill Murray said the FBI is in the process of determining which law enforcement agency is best equipped to handle the case. Davies' company hosts several dirty domains, including the Adult Webmaster Info bulletin board, which has been brought low by massive, coordinated traffic in the last few weeks, including more than 745 million hits in one day this week. Last week, Deepsy took credit for the site's woes. "Whoever is doing the attack is watching closely what we're doing," Davies said. "We set up rules (to filter out the attacks), and then we start getting longer packets, which we can't filter." He added, "The attacks haven't been that sophisticated, but the volume is incredible." Under federal law, first-time hacking offenses are now punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain. Making threats to damage property earns up to two years in the clink. In an interview over instant messenger, Deepsy said that he had personal beefs with several of his alleged victims: Both GFY's chieftain, nicknamed "Lensman," and Nightbucks.com head Jay Jay owed him money. This was his way of collecting, Deepsy said. But the alleged hacker may wind up getting more than he bargained for, said Luke Ford, author of A History of X: 100 Years of Sex in Film. "Deepsy should be worried for his life," he wrote in an e-mail. "Some of these Internet players would kill over matters like this." Rick Latona -- with smut and lowbrow joke site ConsumptionJunction.com -- announced on GFY a $2,000 reward for any information about his attacker. "This will get ugly," Latona promised. Deepsy "picked the wrong industry" to mess with, Latona added in an instant message. "I'll gladly have someone take care of things," a GFYer replied. "Fucking blackmailing shitface must die." - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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