The Violence Policy Center site has been Hacked!

I agree with Mike. This is a spoof site. I can almost remember seeing it before, but I can't swear to it. The VPC would never use an Yahoo e-mail addy. Think about it?

Joe

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11 year old Mikee thinks this is pretty funny, but 51 year old Mike would point out A), that if we preport to support the 1st Ammendment rights of others, no matter how stupid, misinformed, misguided, venal, banal, insipid and trite they may seem, then we don't wee in their campfire; B), what goes around, comes around, so play nice. Don't think for a minute that there aren't a pelethora of technotalented geeks out there both capable and inclined to trash firearm/RKBA/2ndA sites. C), it was hacked, at least according to CBS News (WMAL, 1500 AM)at 5:45 PM, it isn't fixed because they probably contracted out the site developmenet & maintenance (can't do it themselves), and the longer it's broke, the longer they can play victim (see, those mean, primative,heavily armed gunny troglodytes busted our site cause they're so scairt of our messsage. . . ).

Yeah, it's still pretty funny, though. Has anybody seen George Hill today :) :) :)?
M2
 
First off, we've BEEN hacked before. www.keepandbeararms.org got nailed with a fairly sophisticated DoS attack, and the guy that serves up Geoff Metcalf's home site plus www.vetothegovernor.org, The Madison Society plus my site got nailed a while back.

So this ain't no first strike here.

Second, I find it very interesting that the hacker uses BRITISH spellings ("centre", "organisations").

Jim
 
Verrrrrrrrrry iteresting! It seems the fight for liberty comes from across the sea! I have no sympathy for any hacker, but this is just plain funny! We've been nice too long. Maybe it is time to unleash the wrathe of the gun organisations from the centre of our bonetts. It's smashing! BY Jove! Leave it to an Englishman to dump the first tea into the harbor. What's wrong with us? On topic after topic, many have stated this is War. Why don't we act like it. If he was English, I raise my cup and say "thanks for the laugh mate"!
 
The British spelling could also be Australian or Canadian.

All three have been hit hard by these types.

Battler.
 
It is the real VPC site. I have it on my favorites. Its been hacked, but good. They still haven't figured it out.
Its is funny, but not a good thing. I would hate to see everyone lose in a cyber war.

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Clever.


Anybody (from LA area) try calling the phone number listed above?



[This message has been edited by RAE (edited June 20, 2000).]
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by C.R.Sam:
Not good. Cracker makes us all look like hoodlums.

[/quote]

Re your observation, quoted above, I wonder TO WHOM. To the anti-gunners, we already have that appearence. To the uniniated, who might happen onto the thing, it might just get some thinking.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Not good. Cracker makes us all look like hoodlums.[/quote]
True, it's childish, and it goes against the 1st Amendment, BUT let's not forget that the antis have hacked several of our sites. About a year ago, one of the major sites (NRA? GOA? I can't remember which now) suddenly had link to 'gun safety', the link took you directly to HCI's site. Our own Ms. D's site got hacked a while back by an anti. They're only getting what they give. :D

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Refuse to be a "helpless" victim.
Knowing Your Rights WAGC in Indiana
 
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/06/21/guns/index.html


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Pro-gun hackers take over Web site
And a prominent group of gun critics is still trying to get it back.


- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Alicia Montgomery

June 21, 2000 | WASHINGTON -- For a while at least, the 10 or so employees of the Violence Policy Center tried to remain blasé after their Web site was hijacked Monday by anti-gun control hackers, their usual home page replaced by a clunky gray box with a bomb and a skull and crossbones.

Josh Sugarmann, VPC's executive director, figured the site could be restored in a matter of hours, and refrained from trying to fix the site in order to "leave the crime scene untouched" for the FBI. Tuesday, however, he learned that the cyberterrorists didn't just hack on to their site, linking to pro-gun groups, erasing mountains of data (which VPC luckily had saved) and gloating onscreen about getting rid of VPC's "propagandist bull****." They also stole the group's Web identity.




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Apparently, the hackers figured out a way to actually take over access to the site, which is licensed to VPC by Network Solutions. So until Sugarmann finds out how to wrest control away from them, the hackers are masters of the group's domain. That includes incoming e-mail to VPC from its Web address, which makes Sugarmann concerned for the safety of the senders.

Then, in more bad news, the FBI told Sugarmann that the hacking doesn't become a blip on the FBI's radar screen until the group can prove it has incurred $5,000 in damages -- a serious hurdle for a nonprofit organization, because its losses are largely confined to the labor required to fix the hacking mess. Its product is information, which it gives away for free, so assessing damages becomes a guessing game. "These are standards that are put in place for for-profit entities," he said.

VPC is a fairly frequent target of gun advocates -- and vice versa. The group is a rising star among gun control groups, most recently scrapping with the NRA over its feathered and kid-friendly mascot, Eddie Eagle, and its plans for a Times Square theme restaurant. In turn, the NRA has taken personal swipes at Sugarmann, and the pro-gun press repeatedly lambastes him and his group.

In a way, the attack may have been inevitable. Sugarmann says gun advocates have always been pioneers in communication technology. "They were the first to use computer bulletin boards, they were the first to use the Web, they were the first to use blast fax," he said. "They are way ahead of organizations on our side of the issue."

Gun advocates have cloned gun control sites in the past. Handguncontrol.net, a pro-gun site, mirrors the anti-gun Handguncontrol.org, just as Center for the Prevention of Handgun Violence has its own doppelganger. VPC seemed immune to these attacks, since the likely addresses -- vpc.net and vpc.com -- are owned by groups unrelated to the gun issue.

Gun rights activists may not settle for cloning anymore. According to Sugarmann, those groups could now start aggressive hack attacks against other anti-gun organizations, having been emboldened by their temporary triumph over VPC. "In pro-gun cyberspace," he says, "this is a big victory."
[/quote]

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John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
www.cphv.com
 
The site is now fixed. Anyone criticizing the hacker that has never seen the site as written should go read the propaganda there.

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Gunslinger
 
More free publicity for El Jefe and John. Good on yas! ;)

Don'tcha just loooove how that article makes VPC out to be a long-suffering victim of vicious attacks by those Evil Gun Advocates?
 
Another news story on topic, found at http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/wednesday/news_930 5052af64d6136008c.html

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Hacker takes over, wipes out anti-gun Web site
Eunice Moscoso - Cox Washington Bureau
Wednesday, June 21, 2000

Washington --- Taking a bitter policy debate into cyberspace, a hacker this week erased an entire Web site run by a gun control advocacy group.

The site --- www.vpc.org --- which belongs to the Violence Policy Center, was replaced by one featuring a picture of a bomb, a skull and crossbones, profanity, and links to three other Web sites, including one for the National Rifle Association.

The hacked site states, "If you take my guns, I still have my computer. VPC just got shot in the head."

The title of the hacked page reads: "This propaganda page had been interrupted by Domain Hijax." The page also says: "Gone are the lies, the false statistics, the propaganda bull---."

The site was still viewable Tuesday evening. VPC officials said the hacker had gained control of the site's officially registered domain name, and that it might take several days to restore the original material.

Josh Sugarmann, head of the Violence Policy Center, said the hacking "is the latest example of the extremism of the pro-gun fringe."

"The gun lobby promises us that their supporters are law-abiding citizens. This act of Internet terrorism proves that such claims are hollow," he said.

The group has reported the vandalism to the FBI. Computer hacking of Web sites is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in jail and hefty fines.

NRA spokesman Bill Powers said Tuesday that the organization had nothing to do with the hacking.

"I don't have a comment. It didn't have anything to do with us," he said.

The hacker --- a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system --- erased every one of the 925 pages of the Violence Policy Institute's elaborate Web site, which included 300 graphic files.

In addition, the hacker provided a link to another page that parodies the site of Handgun Control Inc., the leading group pushing for gun control. The parody Web site, which supports gun rights, features a Handgun Control logo followed by: "25 years of persecuting gun owners."

This is not the first time someone has tried to disrupt the Violence Policy Center through the Internet. In February, the center's e-mail system was bombarded with about 4,500 messages that read "hackers against gun control" in an effort to shut down the system.

In addition, Sugarmann said, hate e-mail to the center has tripled in the last year.

> ON THE WEB: Violence Policy Center: www.vpc.org:

National Rifle Association: www.nra.org

Handgun Control Inc.: www.handguncontrol.org

Parody site: www.handguncontrol.net

[/quote]

Nothing like a straight reporting of the news.

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Rosie O'Donnell's child is protected by a private citizen with a handgun.

[This message has been edited by pax (edited June 21, 2000).]
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Sugarmann says gun advocates have always been pioneers in communication technology. "They were the first to use computer bulletin boards, they were the first to use the Web, they were the first to use blast fax," he said. "They are way ahead of organizations on our side of the issue." [/quote]

Hmmm, could that be because we can think about the future! Could be, could be.
 
I still have trouble condoning the action. But have usmost admiration for the skills of the cracker. The crack itself and the subsequent fumble roostering by the site owners have caused me several gut aches from laughing and cheering..Guess I am a hypocrite.

I have been hacked, cracked and siphoned; but never by anyone with that much skill.

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev predicted confidently in a speech in Bucharest, Rumania on June 19, 1962 that: " The United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."
 
WooHoo.....I am famous....or is that Infamous?? Two articles in one day and one even provided a link to my site. I can see they are impressed with my artist license of the old HCI Logo " 25 years of persecuting gunowners" The other article links out to johns site but calls it a doppleganger...I think john ought to be pissed they called you a wraith (ghostly double).....

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...“ They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” --Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.
---Richard Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788

Take care and God Bless, El Jefe

The ANTI-HCI Site!
 
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