http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2220603,00.html
mirror: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/www.monicalewinsky.com
Monicalewinsky.com site hacked
An anti-Bill Clinton screed replaces entrepreneur's Lewinsky site.
By Martha Stone, ZDNN
March 4, 1999 3:43 PM PT
The owners of Monicalewinsky.com -- who want to trade the domain name to
the real Monica -- found the placeholder site hacked today with an
anti-Bill Clinton message.
Siteleader.com, a small, Wilmette, Ill.-based domain name and hosting
company, is hoping to give the domain to Lewinsky, in exchange for placing
branding banners for the firm on the bottom of each page.
"I think there is no doubt that she'll use this domain name," said Raul
Heredia, Site Leader Inc. vice president, noting that celebrities have
traditionally told all on TV, books and radio.
"The Internet allows you to put out what you want to put out. Now it's
simple -- she can tell her story on the Internet."
But the site had a temporary setback today in its Monica quest. Instead of
a vanity site for Lewinsky, visitors found a rant against President
Clinton and a link to a "Free Kevin Mitnick" site, placed by an
infiltrator called MagicFX.
Hack still registering While the Monicalewinsky.com hack didn't bring the
Site Leader server to its knees, the apparent password break-in did cause
a disruption in service and headaches.
As of 5 p.m. ET Thursday, the hacked version of the site still registered
in several places, particularly those that tend to cache popular sites to
optimize bandwidth. Heredia said the site had been restored early this
afternoon.
"In the future, we will keep hackers out of it," he said. "Hackers are a
real pain."
Site Leader's Monica site features a photograph of Lewinsky and Clinton
and a short note: "This site is reserved for Monica Lewinsky to use to
convey to the American People, the TRUE story of the White House Incident.
The rest of the page is advertising for the Web host."
But on sites with longer caching periods, such as America Online Inc.
(NYSE:AOL), Monicalewinsky.com had a much different message: "This domain
name is up for bids! Own MonicaLewinsky.com. Send your bids now to
bids@siteleader.com. Bids start at $50,000 US."
Heredia denied that the site was ever up for sale, chalking up the message
to miscommunication in the seven-person staff.
Let's make a deal As the site returns to its intended message, Site Leader
is focusing on making a deal with Lewinsky.
Heredia says he contacted Lewinsky's lawyers last fall, and was asked to
call again after the investigation and trial were over. He said he plans
to call the lawyers next week to commence negotiations about a Web site.
ZDNN's attempts to reach Lewinsky, her lawyer and her public relations
representative were unsuccessful.
-o-
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Received on Thu Mar 11 17:30:51 1999