Al Jazeera hacker gets community service
Print story'Patriotic' hacking is still a crime, says judge
Posted in Security, 14th November 2003 15:24 GMT
Free whitepaper – Securing your Microsoft Internet Information Services (MS IIS) web server
A Californian web designer was fined and sentenced to community service this week after he admitted to hacking into the web site of Arabic satellite TV network Al Jazeera during the war in Iraq.
John William Racine II, 24, posed as an Al Jazeera worker to obtain passwords that allowed him to re-route surfers intending to visit Al Jazeera to a site featuring an American flag and the motto "Let Freedom Ring" (captured by defacement archive Zone-h here).
Racine was sentenced to 1000 hours community service and a $2000 fine on Wednesday by US District Judge Howard Matz. In June, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and "unlawful interception of an electronic communication" offences.
"I don't think of you as an evil person... but this was a crime. It wasn't just a childish prank," Judge Matz told Racine.
Many Britons and Americans were upset at aspects of Al Jazeera's reporting of the Iraq war, particularly after it screened footage of captured and dead allied combatants. Some accused the broadcaster of anti-US bias.
However, Al Jazeera said it was committed to presenting both sides of the story impartially. ®
Related Stories
US.gov warns script kiddies to stay out of cyberwar
Al Jazeera's web site - DDoSed or unplugged?
Al Jazeera and the Net - free speech, but don't say that
DNS inventor calls for security overhaul
Free whitepaper – Securing your Microsoft Internet Information Services (MS IIS) web server
Airport insecurity: the case of lost laptops
Jump start your Application Security initiatives
Reducing messaging and web security costs with managed services
Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance
Extended Validation SSL Certificates
Feds: Hospital hacker's 'massive' DDoS averted
Buggy 'smart meters' open door to power-grid botnet
Microsoft knew of nasty IE bug a year before attacks
BlockMaster SafeStick hardware-encrypted USB drive