"It Sucks to Be Me!" Sept.19, 2001 edition. We keep on getting emails from people begging "please don't put my email in 'It sucks to be me'." Relax. There is only one way to end up here, and that is to ask us Happy Hacksters to help commit a crime or do something unethical. Today we headline hacktivists who "accidentally" attacked a company that fights terrorism.

Hackers hit US disaster victim
By Ian Lynch [18-09-2001]

Cyber vigilantes have defaced websites belonging to a firm with around 200 workers missing after last week's attack on the World Trade Center, in which 1100 of its staff were located.
On Sunday, a vigilante group calling itself 'The Dispatchers" defaced terrorismteam.uk.com and terrorism.uk.com. Both web addresses promote the services of the Special Risks Terrorism Team, consultants on counter-terrorism, insurance and risk management services.

The firm is a unit of Aon, where 1100 employees worked in the World Trade Center tower number two on floors 92 and 98-105, with another 250 elsewhere in Manhattan. According to Aon's website, around 200 staff remain unaccounted for.

The defacements carry a text message condemning terrorism.

The vigilantes said that the site had been defaced by mistake, but were glad of the attention it had brought to their 'message'. A member of the group told vnunet.com: "It was by mistake. But due to the media focus on our mistake, it has helped to get our word and message out, so I guess maybe it was not too much of a mistake."

Carolyn comments: The US FBI has announced that anyone they catch committing politically motivated computer crime will get five-year prison terms. The Dispatchers are a perfect reason why. Was their attack an accident? Should we believe, as they claim, that they are really just too f***ing stupid to figure out that this company fights terrorism? Or are they in the pay of Osama bin Laden? Regardless of why they are aiding bin Laden, they need to get shut down. Please, if you know anything about the Dispatchers, help the FBI to bring them to justice.

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