So-called Napster fans crack Web sites to get message out

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by Jennifer Disabatino

(IDG) -- Several sites around the world were reportedly broken into and changed last week by one or more people claiming to be calling attention to the fight between the music industry and the digital music-swapping Web site Napster in Redwood City, Calif.

A manifesto of sorts was posted in support of Napster's fight against music industry labels, titled "The Save Napster Hack Attack."

Though all the sites were apparently restored within 24 hours, with the exception of broken links which may not have anything to do with the crackers, a cached version of the pro-Napster post is visible on Attrition.org, a site that collects information about Web-site attacks.

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The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center is "looking into the reports," said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman.

A federal judge ruled against Napster in a lawsuit filed by record companies represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, ordering the site to take action to stop copyright violations, but that order was stayed pending appeal.

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Attrition.org, which calls itself a computer security Web site, claimed to have verified hacks to Web sites owned by Honda Motor Co., TDK USA Corp., 800shoes.com and Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc. Company representatives didn't return calls by deadline to comment on the claims.

Ben McLaren, president of Models Network International Inc. in Tampa, Fla., told Computerworld by e-mail that his company's site was among those hacked. McLaren said that the site, www.models.net, was hit twice but, after what he described as "extra precautions," hadn't been bothered since.

A librarian's listserve hosted at Stanford, Calif.-based Stanford University's Web site featured a day-long discussion thread on the attack at the Web site for the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BNF), another site reportedly hacked. Sandrine Cellard, a French bookseller, confirmed on the list that the BNF site had indeed been, "hacqued."

One librarian on the Ex Libris listserve said at least one cracker gave an America Online Inc. e-mail address where he can be reached. A person at that e-mail address going by the nickname "Pimp" claimed responsibility in an e-mail to Computerworld.

"I was moved to do this because I know a lot of people in real life who use Napster and still buy CDs very often -- it's just not fair," the e-mail said.

"It sounds like we have a few kids running amok," said Eric Hemmendinger, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston. In fact, the "Save Napster" post was signed, "Hi Mom!"

"This isn't a security story. This is really a story about how the music industry is dealing with its former reluctance to work with the Internet," Hemmendinger said.

It's not even about Napster, said Ira Winkler, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group in Severna Park, Md., and author of "Corporate Espionage."

"A lot of hacking goes on because people want to hack and then they find a cause later," Winkler said "The issue is that now people are just hacking Web sites and then saying they are doing it to support Napster. . . . If you had someone with maturity who supported Napster, they would not hack a Web site. That's not going to make friends and influence people."

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