Lieberman: Alleged Hack Attack “Disrupted Entire Campaign”I just got off the phone with the internet consultant to Joe Lieberman’s campaign, Dan Geary. And he says that the site has been “fatally compromised” by an unknown hacker. In addition, all email addresses with the Joe2006.com domain are down too; the attack, Geary says, has “disrupted the entire campaign.”
Geary, who developed and oversees Lieberman’s site, Joe2006.com (and says that the campaign has paid their account in full), said that an attack starting mid-morning yesterday had “red-lined” the server. “We can’t even get the site up,” he said. “We even tried putting up a single, blank page. It red-lined the entire network. This guy’s got our number.”
Geary said that they believed it to be a “denial of service” attack, meaning there are so many queries to the network that it becomes unstable. He did not have any information as to the source of the attack or any idea about the identity of the hacker. “We’re just fighting to get something live,” he said, “we’re not security experts.” He also said that it would be up to the campaign as to whether they would refer the case to the FBI.
This was not the first time that the site was attacked. Earlier, a hacker “got through one of the functions on the site,” Geary said. The hacker then did a “SQL injection,” ultimately replacing the index page. The front page of the site then read “We ownz you site.” It was signed “thhacker.”
But yesterday’s and today’s was a different kind of attack. Whoever the hacker is “saved the best until the last day,” Geary said.
Update: Lieberman campaign spokesman Dan Gerstein says that the campaign has filed a complaint with Connecticut’s Attorney General and Chief State’s Attorney, and the United States Attorney’s Office.
