Republican, Democratic Web sites attacked on election eve

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Leading Republican and Democratic Web sites were hacked just hours before polls opened on Tuesday, officials from both parties reported.

Late Monday the Republican National Committee's Web site was hacked and replaced with a lengthy tirade against the party's candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, according to RNC spokesman Tom Yu. The unknown hacker also left a link to Al Gore's campaign Web site, Yu said.

"We're disappointed at the large amount of dirty tricks being played this late in the campaign by the Democrats and we hope that Al Gore and the Democratic Party will join us in denouncing this kind of dirty trick," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Security on the Net

Yu declined to detail the anti-Bush message that was posted on the RNC Internet site, saying he did not want to give the words added credibility by repeating them.

The Democratic National Committee's Web site was also infiltrated late Monday. The DNC said in a statement that its Web site suffered, "Repeated attacks" causing it to shut down. "It is unclear where these attacks came from," it said.

Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, characterized Yu's suggestion that her party was somehow involved in hacking the Republican Web site as "unfounded charges."

Both sites were functional as of Tuesday afternoon.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hacker attacks: You can never be too safe
November 1, 2000
Companies fight back against Internet attacks
October 24, 2000
Inside the world of a 'hactivist'
October 18, 2000
Senate committee approves watered-down anti-hacker bill
October 10, 2000

Republican National Committee
Democratic National Committee

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.