FC: HomelandSecurity.gov problems, explanation of whitehouse.gov

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

While we're picking on the administration, check out my favorite "Invalid 
URL" .gov site, which was apparently registered and abandoned:
http://www.homelandsecurity.gov/

Some government agencies and politicos are still pointing the public to the 
non-existent homelandsecurity.gov site:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/ci/ansir/advisories/advisory041702.htm
http://www.1maw.usmc.mil/ATFP/News/02-3.pdf
http://www.house.gov/skelton/col020317.htm

A dig suggests that homelandsecurity.gov and dhs.gov (the current site) 
inhabit the same section of Akamai's network. If I'm reading the dig output 
correctly, it looks like the homelandsecurity.gov site points here, at 
least from my network neighborhood:
http://a830.g.akamai.net/

Because the department uses Akamai, it's odd that dhs.gov would have be 
overwhelmed with traffic in the last hour -- the department should have 
been able to anticipate the interest in today's announcement of a higher 
"alert" condition. The site is more accessible now -- kudos to Akamai for 
(apparently) compensating so quickly. (Fox News is touting the dhs.gov 
domain right now.)

It's also odd that Tom Ridge would register homelandsecurity.gov and then 
abandon it instead of having it redirect to dhs.gov -- a case of 
pre-emptive and then forgotten cybersquatting, perhaps? :)

-Declan

---

From a .gov list member:
> Worse, DHS.GOV had the wrong threat level all throughout Sec. Ridge's speech
> and at least an hour afterward. I can't get through on the server now to check
> (high traffic, apparently.)
>
> Sincerely,
> Anonymous

---

Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 11:17:07 -0800
To: declan () well com
From: Malcolm Hoar <malch () malch com>
Subject: Re: FC: White House Homeland Security, at its technological finest?

They tried to be too cute and got burned.

Their goodbye.cgi script forwards you to the correct page under
some circumstances and an error page in others.

It appears to depend upon the exact combination of request
headers that your specific browser sends. The User-Agent and
Referer headers are the significant ones I *think*.

In any event, those links will appear to work for some users
but not others.

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar           "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| malch () malch com                                     Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/        Shpx gur PQN.                |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---

From: "the head lemur" <headlemur () clearskymail com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: White House Homeland Security, at its technological finest?
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 11:55:37 -0700

We laugh We cry....

It would seem that
The National Strategy For Homeland Security:
Office of Homeland Security
http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/book/index.html
is only available to the sighted who have adobe reader installed.

Screen Readers need not apply,
Lynx Users need not apply,
It probably doesn't matter to the blind either.

there must be some part of Executive Privilege that makes the White House
website not responsible for the Section 508 guidelines.

the head lemur




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