Latest Webjacking: Internet.com Reuters

3:05 p.m. Jun. 5, 2000 PDT

NEW YORK -- Online trade magazine Internet.com 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, and listed Toronto-based domain registrar TUCOWS.com Inc. as the registrar of record.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 05, 2000

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Did not copy the whole story. Here Is the rest of the story!

Today's Headlines 3:40 p.m. Jun. 5, 2000 PDT Latest Webjacking: Internet.com

"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 website 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 unauthorized 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 had been placed on the Internet.com's other registered domain names and that they could not be sold or transferred.

He said the FBI 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. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36783,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 05, 2000.