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Posted on 03/28/2006 9:07:54 AM PST by N3WBI3
Oklahoma city threatens to call FBI over 'renegade' Linux maker Our mistake is YOUR problem By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View Published Friday 24th March 2006 20:20 GMT New year, new job? Click here for thousands of tech vacancies.
The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker Cent OS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server.
This tale kicked off yesterday when Tuttle's city manager Jerry Taylor fired off an angry message to the CentOS staff. Taylor had popped onto the city's web site and found the standard Apache server configuration boilerplate that appears with a new web server installation. Taylor seemed to confuse this with a potential hack attack on the bustling town's IT infrastructure. SPONSORED LINKS
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"Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it???," Taylor wrote to CentOS. "Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma."
Few people would initiate a tech support query like this, but these are dangerous times, and Taylor suspected the worst. (Er, but only the world's most boring hacker would break into a site and then throw up a boilerplate about how to fix the hack.)
CentOS developer Johnny Hughes jumped on the case and tried to explain the situation to Taylor.
"I feel sorry for your city," he replied in an e-mail. "CentOS is an operating system. It is probably installed on the computer that runs your website. . . . Please contact someone who does IT for you and show them the page so that they can configure your apache webserver correctly."
That response didn't go over so well.
"Get this web site off my home page!!!!! It is blocking access to my website!!!!~!," Taylor responded, clearly excited about the situation and sensing that Bin Laden was near.
Again, CentOS jumped in to try and explain some of the technical details behind the problem. It pointed Taylor to this page, saying it was the standard page for a web server and noted that it provides instructions on how to fix the problem. The CentOS staffer suggested that Taylor contact his service provider or have an administrator look into the issue.
That response didn't go over so well.
"Unless this software is removed I will file a complaint with the FBI," Taylor replied.
Later he added,
"I have four computers located at City Hall. All of these computers display the same CentOS page when attempting to bring up Tuttle-ok.gov. Now if your software is not causing this problem, how does it happen??? No one outside this building has complained about this problem. This is a block of public access to a city's website. Remove your software within the next 12 hours or an official complaint to the FBI is being filed!"
And later,
"I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation. Now, can you tell me how to remove 'your software' that you acknowledge you provided free of charge? I consider this 'hacking.'"
After a few more exciting exchanges, CentOS managed to track down the problem for Taylor. It turns out that hosting provider Vidia Communications is running CentOS on some of its servers and had not configured the Tuttle web site properly. CentOS informed Taylor of the situation, and, a day later, Taylor had calmed down.
"The problem has been resolved by VIDIA who used to host the City website," he wrote. "They still provide cable service but do not host the website. The explanation was that they had a crash and during the rebuild they reinstalled the software that affected our website."
"I am sorry that we had to go through the process and accusations to get the problem resolved. It could have been resolved a lot quicker if the initial correspondence with you provided the helpful information that was transmitted in the last messages. My initial contact with VIDIA disallowed any knowledge of creating the problem."
Er, so despite the fact that CentOS went out of its way to figure out the problem for Tuttle, Taylor still places the blame on CentOS for not fixing the problem - that it didn't create - sooner. In addition, Taylor didn't really start off the whole process on the best foot despite Tuttle being a town "Where People Grow - Friendly!" Grow friendly, threaten to bring in the FBI at the drop of a hat - what's the difference?
As of this writing, one Tuttle web site still had not been fixed, although you can find the charming Tuttle man Taylor over here.
Taylor has yet to respond to our request for comment.
It seems that Tuttle has quite the hacking epidemic on its hands. The Tuttle Times newspaper's web site, for example, has had its Forum section cracked. Click at your own risk to see it or have a peek at our screen grab.
To see the full transcript of the web server war, travel over here. It's classic reading. ®
-- Follow up:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/27/tuttle_email/
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Ha! Ha! Pathetic!!
But just in case, throw those Open Source commies in the clink just in case!
"Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it???," Taylor wrote to CentOS. "Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma."
More like the City Idiot!!!!
That's what happens when open source kooks like those at CentOS try to explain their commie philosophy to red blooded Americans, it simply doesn't make sense. So then they try to smear him in foreign newspapers and hack his computers. Typical.
That's got to be the most pathetic troll post you've come up with in months.
Taylor declined to respond to this reporter's request for comment but did write to a member of El Reg's marketing team.I do not follow instructions that show up when a website that I am not familiar with appears on my computer and I do not think anyone with experience would do so either. Once the Centos site appeared on four computers at one site I contacted our web service provider. The web service provider did not know what could cause the problem and had never heard of "CentOS". I then contacted the internet provider's local office and was told that they did nothing to cause the problem. I checked the building's server and found nothing relating to CentOS on the server. I was then left with only the web page email address to contact. I asked for the strange website to be removed because it blocked my City web site and I could not post public information. I only got help after threatening to contact the FBI.
Now I am being flooded with emails from CentOS users that after knowing the answer say the problem was simple. I think this is unjustified and would like for this to stop. Your website should provide useful information and be a credit to the IT world. I do not believe it should be used to incite the users. Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
So stop, now. Please.
Yet you can't debunk it, or even try. I don't have much patience with know-it-all one-world open source fanatics myself, neither do a lot of people. Poor little things get their feelings hurt when people speak to them on direct terms, then try to smear them or hack their computer instead. Consider this simply another example.
"I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation. Now, can you tell me how to remove 'your software' that you acknowledge you provided free of charge? I consider this 'hacking.'"
ROFL.
I believe he's been involved with computer systems for 22 years. I've seen a ton of people, especially info management types who have trouble turning on a workstation, much less actually doing any technical work.
There, fixed. I've had this same problem with you, a complete inability to understand basic concepts even after they've been posted to you multiple times.
I think we've found your soul mate.
You might want to try to remove your head from your rectum, the view is much clearer that way.
See, here come the insults. Probably trying to hack my computer now too.
That's classic GE. They tried to help him from his very first post, but he refused to listen and blamed them instead of realizing his own stupidity.
Your website should provide useful information and be a credit to the IT world.
Dude doesn't know The Register, does he?
Actually I have already succeeded in subverting you with my mind control ray.
Please tell me your initial comment was a joke without a sarcasm tag.
Given your proven lack of knowledge of IT security, that would probably be like dynamiting fish in a barrel. I have better things to do with my time.
Told you that would come back to haunt you.
I never cry to the moderator around here, it's usually one of you boys, especially n3wbi3.
The Register is just another one of the foreign websites you boys love to quote around here. Beleive me I know all about it, and the lies they constantly spread.
No this is what happens when clueless people spout off about how much they know. Hell if the provider was running IIS they might have seen the page under construction, if they were running Solaris they would see either an Apache or SunOne default screen..
So then they try to smear him in foreign newspapers and hack his computers.
What hack is this? The man already falsly accused them of it once..
Did you even read the exchange? This idiot started with an attack from ignorance, not asking for help. CentOS tried to help him from the beginning.
He could have avoided this whole thing if he had just read the page he was looking at, and had enough intelligence to understand it. I wonder why he didn't scream at the Apache project, too, since that was pretty prominent on the page. What CentOS did to figure out his problem (although they were not bound to do it and had little helpful information from him) was within the capability of any halfway decent IT person, definitely within the capability of someone with a claimed 20+ years of experience.
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