FBI: Lieberman campaign, not hackers, caused 2006 Web site crash

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9915434-7.html?tag=nefd.top

 

April 9, 2008 11:45 AM PDT 


FBI: Lieberman campaign, not hackers, caused 2006 Web site crash


Posted by Anne  <http://www.news.com/8300-10784_3-7.html?authorId=102>
Broache

 

At the time, conspiracy theories abounded. There was twittering that liberal
bloggers who backed Lieberman's antiwar Democratic rival, Ned Lamont (who
went on to win the  <http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-6103549-7.html>
primary, by the way) were responsible for the site's inaccessibility, and
Lieberman's own campaign maintained that a denial-of-service attack had
occurred. 

Well, nearly two years later, we finally know whom to blame: the Lieberman
campaign's own system configuration. 

A recent Freedom of Information Act request by the
<http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_8859029> Stamford Advocate, a
local newspaper, turned up an FBI memo that concluded there was no evidence
of an attack. 

Rather, "the server that hosted the joe2006.com Web site failed because it
was overutilized and misconfigured," according to an e-mail message dated
October 25, 2006 from the FBI's New Haven, Conn., office. 

The site crashed because Lieberman officials were exceeding a
100-e-mails-per-hour limit, as configured by their system administrator, on
the night before the primary, the memo went on. The system administrator
"misinterpreted the root cause" of the additional Web traffic overwhelming
the Web server and declared it was being attacked, the FBI memo said. 

Lieberman, of course, ultimately won re-election to the Senate as an
Independent Party candidate during the November election. The 2000 running
mate to Democratic presidential contender Al Gore has also been on the road
campaigning for this year's presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
John
<http://www.news.com/Technology-Voters-Guide-John-McCain/2100-1028_3-6224285
.html> McCain. 

 

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