FC: Feds pull plug on suspicious "cyberwarfare" .gov site

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Feb 05 2003 - 05:46:20 PST

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: More on AONN.gov: Feds pull plug on "cyberwarfare" .gov site"

    I've placed a mirror of AONN.gov here:
    http://www.politechbot.com/docs/aonn/
    
    Alternatively, here's the AONN.gov homepage from Google's cache:
    http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:1JEsrM4RI4oC:www.aonn.gov/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
    
    -Declan
    
    ---
    
    http://news.com.com/2100-1023-983384.html
    
       Feds pull suspicious .gov site
       By Declan McCullagh
       February 5, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
       
       WASHINGTON--In a move that raises questions about the security of
       governmental domains, the Bush administration has pulled the plug on a
       .gov Web site pending an investigation into the authenticity of the
       organization that controlled it.
       
       Until recently, visitors to the AONN.gov Web site were treated to a
       smorgasbord of information about an agency calling itself the Access
       One Network Northwest (AONN), a self-described cyberwarfare unit
       claiming to employ more than 2,000 people and had the support of the
       U.S. Department of Defense.
       
       No federal agency called AONN appears to exist, and no agency with
       that name is on the official list of organizations maintained by the
       U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
       
       The General Services Administration (GSA), which runs the .gov
       registry, pulled the domain on Jan. 24, after a query from CNET
       News.com.
       
       "There are questions about the authenticity of the Web site that
       includes the AONN name," the agency said in an e-mail reply. "Until
       the situation is resolved, we have eliminated the URL from the .gov
       directory name server."
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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