[ISN] Al-Jazeera hacker sentenced

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Fri Nov 14 2003 - 06:47:16 PST

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    http://news.com.com/2100-7349-5107409.html
    
    By Reuters 
    November 13, 2003
    
    A Los Angeles-area man has been fined and sentenced to community
    service for hacking into the Web site of satellite TV network
    Al-Jazeera during the U.S.-led war in Iraq and rerouting visitors to a
    page featuring an American flag and the motto "let freedom ring.''
    
    At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Howard Matz
    told Web designer John William Racine II: "I don't think of you as an
    evil person...but this was a crime. It wasn't just a childish prank."
    
    Matz sentenced Racine, 24, to 1,000 hours of community service and a
    $2,000 fine. Racine, also known as John Buffo, vowed to the judge that
    he would never do such a thing again.
    
    Prosecutors said the Qatar-based Arabic television broadcaster did not
    respond to U.S. government inquiries about whether the hacking caused
    it any financial losses.
    
    Racine posed as an Al-Jazeera employee to get a password to the
    network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that
    showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and the patriotic
    motto, court documents said.
    
    In June, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception
    of an electronic communication.
    
    
    
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