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'USA TODAY' WEBSITE HACKED; PRANKSTERS MOCK BUSH, CHRISTIANITY...
Drudge Report ^ | 7/12/2002 | Matt Drudge

Posted on 07/11/2002 9:33:43 PM PDT by toupsie

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU JUL 11, 2002 23:32:38 ET XXXXX

'USA TODAY' WEBSITE HACKED; PRANKSTERS MOCK BUSH, CHRISTIANITY



The USA TODAY newspaper's website was broken into late Thursday evening by hackers who put up a series of stories blasting George Bush, Sercretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Christianity.



Regular readers of the site could easily be misled because the hackers used the USA TODAY's basic design template, but multiple misspellings and bad grammar give away the prank.

One headline entitled 'Bush proposes another new Cabinet post' linked to an article purportedly filed by the ASSOCIATED PRESS:

Washington D.C. (AP) - Today, George W. Bush has proposed yet another cabinet level position. The Cabinet Minister for Propoganda and Popular Englightenment, will be setup to complement the recent addition of the department of Homeland Defense. It is reported that, if approved, Bush would appoint Dr. Joseph Goebbels to the post.

In recent weeks Tom Ridge has complained that his department has lacked the proper authority to keep terrorists from infiltrating the american mind. 95% of Americans, in a Gallop poll, agree that we have to do all we can to rid the country of terrorists, showing the public still strongly supports president Bush in his campaign against terrorism.

If the move is succesful, people close to the Whitehouse think there could be a turf war between Goebbels and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. Since September 11th, Fleischer has come to enjoy controling public opinion and has expressed dissatisfaction with the idea of a Popular Englightement Minister. There was a constant flow of customers buying everything.



Headlines 'Opps says the Pope; Christianity a Sham!' and

'Donald Rumsfeld: An American Beauty?' also linked to mock articles. The Rumsfeld article alleged that the Secretary of Defense is homosexual.

At of 11 pm EDT USA TODAY could no longer be accessed by the public.

Developing...

-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed by Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2001
Not for reproduction without permission of the author



TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: tech; usatoday; websitehack
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To: toupsie
A little education can be a dangerous thing and these dumbasses appear to have as little as they could escape public school with.
21 posted on 07/11/2002 11:02:29 PM PDT by Wondervixen
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To: HAL9000
Netcraft - "The site www.usatoday.com is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000"

:-D

22 posted on 07/11/2002 11:02:59 PM PDT by Dominic Harr
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To: Diplomat
...according to HIS site figures?

With radio and TV stations, we have definitive figures ...

Who has seen his logs? Who has verified his logs?
23 posted on 07/11/2002 11:07:45 PM PDT by Vidalia
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To: Dominic Harr
You haven't pinged that Tacoma MS worshipper yet?
24 posted on 07/11/2002 11:11:51 PM PDT by SoDak
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To: Vidalia
The guy drove the television press for years during the klintoon administration. He consistantly published reports that became the news staple 2 day later. The guy is a gossip monger and definitely has inside connections to some news sources. What's a matter, he not Woodard and Bernstien enough for you?
25 posted on 07/11/2002 11:14:17 PM PDT by Diplomat
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To: HAL9000
Hal,
Interesting Post. More from Netcraft...

www.usatoday.com web server history:


Oper.Sys      Web Server               Date Changed

Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        31-Mar-2002
Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        16-Jan-2002
Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        15-Jan-2002
Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        9-Jan-2002
Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        7-Jan-2002
Windows 2000  Microsoft-IIS/5.0        4-Jan-2002
Solaris       Netscape-Enterprise/3.6  12-Nov-2001
unknown       Netscape-Enterprise/3.6  5-Oct-2001
Solaris       Netscape-Enterprise/3.6  27-Aug-2001
Solaris       unknown                  26-Aug-2001

Will be interesting to see how their web server history looks 6 months from now. :-)

26 posted on 07/11/2002 11:21:19 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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To: toupsie
Sounds like USA Today needs to update the security programs for their website.
27 posted on 07/11/2002 11:31:42 PM PDT by Salvation
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To: toupsie
The Rumsfeld article alleged that the Secretary of Defense is homosexual.

Let's cut to the chase, shall we?....

Homosexuals hate Christians because they are the only group left that refuses to back down in their criticism of what they do. Bush, and many in his administration, are practicing, committed Christians as well.

Whoever coined the phrase, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" never met a group of homosexuals who were suddenly told that it is a vile act.

28 posted on 07/11/2002 11:36:16 PM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: Diplomat
What's a matter, he not Woodard and Bernstien enough for you? ..."during the klintoon administration"

That administration is long over.....

He is a One Trick Pony

What has Drudge "broken" to the world that the rest of the dullard news agencies have not?

The internet news services have passed him by.

He is an arrogant SOB much like Orsen Wells became after "The War of the Worlds" radio success.

Fox News Channel has verifiable stories before he can even "source".

Drudge is an outdated Carousel
29 posted on 07/11/2002 11:55:52 PM PDT by Vidalia
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To: toupsie
I didn't realize Little Katie Communist of the NBC Today Show knew how to hack a website. Finally something impressive from the little wimp.
30 posted on 07/12/2002 4:05:54 AM PDT by jrlc
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To: pariah
The article reads as if it were written by dyslexic 8th graders as a term project for their liberal social studies teacher.

Boy, I really miss eighth grade. What memories. ;-)

31 posted on 07/12/2002 4:31:15 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
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To: toupsie
"Pranksters" is an inappropriate designation. How about criminals. Hacking needs to be defined seriously not as childish hi-jinks.
32 posted on 07/12/2002 5:35:11 AM PDT by zip
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To: HAL9000
"The site www.usatoday.com is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000"

It figures.

33 posted on 07/12/2002 5:49:27 AM PDT by ELS
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To: SkyPilot
That picture needs a hurl-alert!!
34 posted on 07/12/2002 5:49:40 AM PDT by meyer
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To: TheEngineer
Interesting, I wonder why they switched from Solaris/Netscape to W2K/IIS? IIS is terrible! Personally if I had a Web server, I would probably use some version of Unix with Apache.
35 posted on 07/12/2002 5:52:01 AM PDT by ELS
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To: Incorrigible
See reply #26.
36 posted on 07/12/2002 5:53:22 AM PDT by ELS
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To: SkyPilot
*SPIT* so much for my cup of coffee.
and Gay (I mean) Good Morning to you all! ha ha
37 posted on 07/12/2002 5:58:44 AM PDT by NWOhioGirl7O7
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To: ELS; Bush2000
Et tu, ELS?

My heart, it breaks!

It doesn't take much to lock down IIS. 

Security Operations Guide for Windows 2000 Server

Of course, UNIX systems are also vulnerable as Bush2000 has pointed out numerous times but that doesn't seem to get the press about Microsoft. 

Companies that hire incompetent web managers get hacked no matter what.

38 posted on 07/12/2002 6:23:38 AM PDT by Incorrigible
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To: toupsie
Who would have guessed that Carvile knew how to crack into computers?
39 posted on 07/12/2002 6:34:12 AM PDT by steve-b
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To: Incorrigible
Companies that hire incompetent web managers get hacked no matter what.

Yes, that is the essential truth.

I had been using IIS on WinNT at work for development purposes, which to my knowledge, no hackers were trying to get into. A version of the Nimda virus found the instance of IIS on my computer and proceeded to modify all sorts of files on my computer. Real nice. Granted the network ops guys were asleep on the job, but this virus doesn't make its home in Apache which I promptly switched to.

40 posted on 07/12/2002 6:58:52 AM PDT by ELS
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