Al-Jazeera hacker sentenced

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://news.com.com/2100-7349-5107409.html

By Reuters 
November 13, 2003

A Los Angeles-area man has been fined and sentenced to community
service for hacking into the Web site of satellite TV network
Al-Jazeera during the U.S.-led war in Iraq and rerouting visitors to a
page featuring an American flag and the motto "let freedom ring.''

At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Howard Matz
told Web designer John William Racine II: "I don't think of you as an
evil person...but this was a crime. It wasn't just a childish prank."

Matz sentenced Racine, 24, to 1,000 hours of community service and a
$2,000 fine. Racine, also known as John Buffo, vowed to the judge that
he would never do such a thing again.

Prosecutors said the Qatar-based Arabic television broadcaster did not
respond to U.S. government inquiries about whether the hacking caused
it any financial losses.

Racine posed as an Al-Jazeera employee to get a password to the
network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that
showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and the patriotic
motto, court documents said.

In June, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception
of an electronic communication.



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