NY Mag Website Gets Attacked After Unveiling Cover With 35 Cosby Victims

On Sunday Night, New York magazine published a groundbreaking cover featuring 35 of the 46 women who have publicly accused comedian Bill Cosby of rape and/or sexual assault.

But just hours after the unveiling, the magazine’s website, nymag.com, went down amid a denial of service attack from a hacker, the news site The Daily Dot reported Monday morning.

The self-described hacker, who goes by the name “ThreatKing,” told the Daily Dot he hates New York City. He said the attack was not an attempt to silence the women.

An archived version of the magazine’s story can be read here.

ThreatKing told the news site the reason for the attack stemmed an ill-fated trip to New York City about two months ago.

“Someone pranked me. Everyone started laughing and shit,” he told The Daily Dot. “The first 10 hours being there. Some African-American tried to prank me with a fake hand gun.”

The magazine’s site was still inaccessible as of 9:30 a.m. EDT. The magazine said it was trying to fix it.

Our site is experiencing technical difficulties. We are aware of the issue, and working on a fix.

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) July 27, 2015

While the magazine’s site is down, the women’s stories can be heard on Instagram, including Victoria Valentino, 72, a former Playboy bunny.

Victoria Valentino, 72, a former Playboy bunny, was allegedly assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1969. Valentino was dining with her roommate at their usual joint, Café Figaro, where Cosby happened to be part owner. He knew that Valentino’s 6-year-old son had recently died, and he told Valentino’s friend that he thought she could use some cheering up. “He took my roommate and me out to dinner. It was this new hip steak restaurant on the strip near the Whiskey a Go Go called Sneaky Pete’s. He was chatting her up and trying to charm her. And he reached across and put a pill next to my wine glass and said, ‘Here, this will make you feel better,’ and he gave her one. I wasn’t really thinking. I thought, Great, me feel better? You bet. So I took the pill and washed it down with some red wine. And then he reached across and put another pill in my mouth and gave her one. Just after I took the second pill, my face was, like, face-in-plate syndrome, and I just said, ‘I wanna go home.’ He said he would drive us home. We went up this elevator. I sat down, and lay my head back, just fighting nausea. I looked around and he was sitting next to my roommate on the loveseat with this very predatory look on his face. She was completely unconscious. I could hear the words in my head, but I couldn’t form words with my mouth, because I was so drugged out.” Tap the photo to hear Victoria Valentino tell her story, and watch her video interview at nymag.com/cosby-women.

A video posted by New York Magazine (@nymag) on Jul 26, 2015 at 6:20pm PDT

Here is the magazine’s cover:

Amanda Demme/New York Magazine