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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 14:18:32 -0700
From: myles weissleder <myles@INCH.COM>
To: DOMAIN-POLICY@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET
Subject: news of the day: internet.com 'hijacked'
this one takes the cake...
/m
Internet.com says domain names "hijacked"
By Reshma Kapadia
NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) - Online trade magazine Internet.com Corp.
(NasdaqNM:INTM - news) said Monday its Internet domain name was ``hijacked''
when someone illegally transferred ownership on several of its domain
addresses, Chief Executive Alan Meckler told Reuters.
Several ``whois'' databases, which track domain ownership, listed the owner
of the Internet.com domain as BCS Inc. based in Montreal, Canada, and listed
Toronto-based domain registrar TUCOWS.com Inc. as the registrar of record.
``We are shocked by the whole thing,'' Meckler said. ``We don't know if we
were hacked or Network Solutions was hacked.''
Meckler said the company learned of the transfer Sunday night, but said
neither the content of the Web site nor the site's traffic have been
affected.
The situation is under investigation, Network Solutions spokesman Brian
O'Shaughnessy said, adding that the company is working with Internet.com to
resolve the discrepancy as quickly as possible.
According to Darryl Green, manager of business development at TUCOWS.com,
the perpetrator was able to get an unauthorised change of administrative
contact from Network Solutions, which was then used to transfer the
registrar of record to TUCOWS.com.
At that point, the individual was able to transfer ownership to BCS Inc.,
which is presumed to be a fake identity.
Green said TUCOWS.com is currently working with Network Solutions to
transfer ownership of the domain address back to Internet.com.
With the growth of the number of registered names, incidents of ``spoofing''
have taken place with individuals spoofing a name and then going to a
competitive registrar to transfer domains there, a source close to the
matter said.
Meckler said Network Solutions, the top Internet domain name registrar with
more than 15 million registered addresses, assured him that a block has been
placed on the Internet.com's other registered domain names could not be sold
or transferred.
He said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has been contacted about
the theft and the company also intends to contact legal authorities.
Last week Indonesian site Bali.com and Web.net, a Canadian hosting site for
charities, both had their domain addresses ``kidnapped'' by an unknown thief
who transferred registration to a fake name.
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