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September 14, 1998, Monday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 18; Column 3; National Desk

LENGTH: 1034 words

HEADLINE: Hacker Group Commandeers The New York Times Web Site

BYLINE: By AMY HARMON

BODY:
A group calling for the release of Kevin Mitnick, the imprisoned computer criminal, commandeered The New York Times site on the World Wide Web for several hours yesterday, forcing the newspaper's electronic edition to shut down at a time when traffic was particularly heavy because of the release on Friday of the independent counsel's report over the Internet.

Instead of The Times's opening screen, some visitors to the site at www.nytimes.com early yesterday saw a logo marked "HFG" with images of nude women and a diatribe posted by the hackers that included attacks on The Times's past coverage of Mr. Mitnick, who has been in prison since he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in February 1995. Officials of The Times's electronic media division shut down the site at 10:20 A.M. after the break-in was discovered. They did not restore service until about 7:30 P.M. after taking steps to secure the site's computers.

Joseph Valiquette, an F.B.I. spokesman, said the agency's computer crime squad in New York had opened an investigation into the break-in.

Martin A. Nisenholtz, president of The New York Times Electronic Media Company, said late yesterday that the company did not yet know how the hacker organization, which called itself HFG -- or Hacking for Girlies -- had breached its security. But he speculated that the attack was timed to coincide with the increased traffic to the site and to cyberspace in general in the wake of electronic publication on Friday of the report to Congress by Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel.

"This is a much more destructive weekend to be doing this than normal," Mr. Nisenholtz said. "We were running 35 percent above normal on Saturday, and typically Sunday is twice as big as Saturday." A typical Sunday would see about 150,000 visitors to the Times site.

The attack on the Times site appears to be the first time that hackers have penetrated the Web site of a major news organization. But computer security experts noted that attacks on high-profile targets are by no means rare. Other targets have been sites operated by the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, Coca-Cola, a Fox TV affiliate in Chicago, Germany's Free Democratic Party, and President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico.

The incident seemed to underscore the fragility of the global computer network during a period when governments, corporations and individuals are increasingly relying on it as a source of instant news and information. Several large Internet service providers reported record traffic volume over the weekend as people logged on to read the Starr report, which Congress put on the Web before it was made available elsewhere.

Lance Hoffman, a computer science professor at George Washington University and director of the nonprofit Cyberspace Policy Institute in Washington, said it was fortunate that the attack was not more malevolent.

Even so, "the material posted by the hackers is offensive, childish, threatening and chilling," Mr. Hoffman said. "It's a good example of why we have to bring accountability to the Internet."

The approaching trial in January of Mr. Mitnick, a convicted computer criminal who has been imprisoned since he was arrested on charges of parole violation and several Federal felony counts in early 1995, also appears to have galvanized some members of the computer underground. The group that took over the Times site directed some of its comments at John Markoff, a reporter for The Times who covered Mr. Mitnick's arrest. Earlier this year, Yahoo, the biggest Internet search engine site, was hacked by a group proclaiming its support for Mr. Mitnick. And in July, the hacker magazine 2600 led a small protest outside the New York offices of Miramax Films, which is producing a movie based on the book "Takedown" (Hyperion, 1996) by Tsutomu Shimomura and Mr. Markoff, which details the pursuit and capture of Mr. Mitnick.

"Once the trial date comes closer, we're going to be seeing a strengthened effort in hacking Web sites to get the Kevin Mitnick name known," predicted John Vranesevich, founder of Antionline, a Web site at www.antionline.com that tracks hacker activity. Members of the group that claimed responsibility for attacking the Times site have for several years been engaged in a war of words on the Internet with Carolyn P. Meinel, an author who writes about the computer underground.

The counterfeit Web page posted on the Times site included text that could be read only by examining the underlying computer code, which revealed an attack on the writings of Ms. Meinel, author of "The Happy Hacker" (American Eagle Publications, 1998). The group took issue with her comparing computer break-ins to terrorism.

"If we find the time and effort to hack a few pages, labeling us 'terrorists' will only further annoy us and provoke us," the group's text stated, "since it is absurd to make such parallels between two disparate groups. The real reason we put any blame on Carolyn Meinel is because of her obtuse over-dramatizations of our actions."

Ms. Meinel said in an interview yesterday that last month a group identifying itself as HFG attacked the computers of Rt66, an Internet service provider in Albuquerque, N.M., on which she has an account.

Mark Schmitz, Rt66's co-founder, said the company was working with the F.B.I. and the local authorities to identify those responsible for the attacks on his site, especially one in which several customers' credit card numbers were stolen.

Ms. Meinel also said that she had been the victim of another attack by a group she suspects may be linked to HFG, based on on-line interactions she has had with a person who seems to be involved with both groups.

In that attack, made on several Internet users simultaneously, including Ms. Meinel and Mr. Markoff, the attackers subscribed the victims to tens of thousands of Internet mailing lists in an effort to disrupt their electronic mail service.

Ms. Meinel said she was writing a second book, to be titled "The Hacker Wars."

"These people are desperate for fame," she said. "These are the kids who used to make stink bombs. Now they have the Internet."
LOAD-DATE: September 14, 1998