Someone hacked into the Latimes.com network and installed an Internet Relay Chat program, according to Dan Royal, operations manager. (latimes.com) By Jonathan Dube

Feb. 15  The Los Angeles Times Web site, Latimes.com, was hacked into last week and the FBI is investigating whether the incident is related to the Web attacks that knocked several leading sites offline, ABCNEWS.com has learned. Someone hacked into the network and installed popular chat software, Internet Relay Chat, on an Latimes.com server, said Dan Royal, operations manager of Latimes.com. The incident has caught the attention of FBI agents because it occurred at roughly the same time ZDNet and E*TRADE were attacked, around 11:30 a.m. PT on Feb. 9. They dont know at this point whether its related or not, but theyre certainly interested in finding out, Royal told ABCNEWS.com. The fact that it came at virtually the same time as the Web attacks is certainly very interesting. FBI Tracking Hacker Royal said he is currently working with the FBI to track the hacker or hackers down. He said theres no doubt the program was installed by someone who hacked into the system. Anything that you do with a computer leaves some sort of a footprint, some sort of a trail, and the FBI is looking at those trails right now to see what they can come up with, Royal said. Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI, declined comment on the investigation.

A Mystery Royal said he doesnt know why someone would install the IRC program on the Latimes.com server, as the software is usually used to connect users so they can chat across the Internet. But it is possible that the person who broke in had other plans. The attacks that knocked down leading Web sites last week were launched from dozens of zombie computers that hackers had broken into and instructed to send the attacks. What this persons plans were I dont know, Royal said. Its really kind of a mystery. Weve been scratching our heads saying, why? It was just obviously unsettling that they were able to get through our security and do it. Royal discovered that the system had been hacked after he went through a series of checks and noticed that one of the servers was running abnormally.

Security Tightened The hack prompted Latimes.com to tighten security and begin a complete security audit. So far, Latimes.com has not discovered anything else that the hackers may have done to its system. Obviously we shored up our security and found a number of things that needed to be fixed, Royal said. This is the first time Latimes.com has been hacked into since it launched in 1996. This is the first time and hopefully the last, Royal said.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/webattacks_latimes000215.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 16, 2000