[ISN] Fark.com sues over attempted hacking

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2007 - 23:07:44 PDT


http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/174791.html

[Backround information here - 
http://www.infosecnews.org/hypermail/0708/13610.html ]


By Brandon Ortiz
Sept. 12, 2007

Fark.com has sued a man it accuses of attempting to hack into the e-mail 
and computers of its staff members.

The Web site, founded in Lexington, allows members to comment on 
postings of oddball news stories. It has developed a large national 
following.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington on Tuesday, says 
an unknown computer hacker sent e-mails on Aug. 8 imploring Fark staff 
members to visit a particular Web site. For the next four days, Fark 
staff received forged e-mails that appeared to come from other staff 
members, containing links to three Web sites. The links contained Trojan 
horse programs, malicious software that allows secret unauthorized 
remote access to computers.

The lawsuit says the purpose of the programs appeared to be to steal 
passwords from infected computers and download them to a computer in 
Tennessee. It says the hacker attempted to log in to Fark e-mail and 
staff member accounts using stolen password information.

The hacker got into one of the e-mail accounts of a Fark moderator, said 
the Web sites founder, Drew Curtis of Versailles. The infection did not 
affect the Web site, he said.

We got lucky because they did not get all the way in, Curtis said.

Curtis says he is 99.9 percent sure he has identified the hacker, who he 
believes works at a Memphis television station. He said he is waiting to 
obtain information via subpoena to confirm his suspicions.

Thats what is weird: We dont know what they were trying to do, Curtis 
said.

The lawsuit seeks undisclosed economic and punitive damages and a 
permanent injunction against future hacking attempts.


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