http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1453761
By Jim Wagner
August 28, 2002
The Recording Industry Association of America was the victim of a hack
Wednesday, forcing network administrators to shut down the site and
look for the hole in its Web server.
The RIAA has drawn the scorn of legions of Internet denizens in recent
years for its stance on Internet radio broadcast fees and peer-to-peer
networking. The organization became infamous to millions of users
after filing an injunction against the popular free music-swapping
program, Napster.
But even if and when the organization does find out what happened,
RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy told internetnews.com he wouldn't issue
any information about the defacement.
"All I can tell you is there's a problem with our site that we are
fixing," Lamy said. "It should be back up shortly."
Only the home page was defaced, as far as officals can tell, though
the links pointed to existing RIAA.org Web pages. The defaced site
featured such tidbits as "Inside the RIAA with Eric Cartman" -- the
best-known character from the irreverent Comedy Central cartoon "South
Park" -- and "Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry" -- an
acerbic touch flung in the face of the biggest opponent to digital
music piracy.
Also, a link entitled "Where can I find information on giant monkeys?"
took readers to the biography page of Hilary Rosen, RIAA chief
executive officer.
Members of the offbeat Fark.com online forum cheered the hackers
responsible, saying they were not only able to deface the site, but
shut it down entirely after thousands flocked to the RIAA.org site to
see the defacement.
As of press time, a mirror site of the defacement is available here [1].
One Fark.com reader, RepoMan, chimed in with one possible reaction by
the RIAA:
"The RIAA response to this will be entertaining in itself. Of course
they will go crying to their friends in government like Tonya Harding
with her broken lace: "See, this is what we're up against... we're
just trying to make an honest dollar and these computer pirates are
knocking over our sand castles."
Since exercising its considerable muscle in court versus Napster --
perceived by many in the industry as a startup that revolutionized the
way music is shared on the Internet --the RIAA has been a convenient
target for hackers.
In July, an unknown hacker or hackers brought the RIAA site to its
knees with a denial of service (DOS) (define) attack. It was an ironic
turn of events for the organization; a month prior, legislation was
proposed that would have given the RIAA (and other intellectual
owners) the right to shut down peer-to-peer networks using DOS-style
tactics.
Robert Lyttle, better known for the role he played in the Deceptive
Duo hacks that landed him in hot water this year, gained his
reputation defacing hundreds of Web sites in 2000 to protest the
RIAA's actions.
[1] http://wintermute.student.umd.edu/
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Received on Aug 29 2002
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