Forwarded message:
HACKERS BREAK INTO YAHOO!, CALL FOR RELEASE OF MITNICK
Yahoo December 9, 1997 Web posted at: 5:54 p.m. EST (2254 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hackers broke into Yahoo!, the Internet's most popular site, demanding the release of an imprisoned comrade and threatening to unleash a crippling computer virus if he is not freed.
Computer security experts were skeptical of the hackers' claim that they had implanted such a virus.
The hackers, calling themselves PANTS/HAGIS, got into Yahoo!'s World Wide Web site at about 10 p.m. Monday, leaving a digital ransom note.
"For the past month, anyone who has viewed Yahoo's page & used their search engine, now has a logic bomb/worm implanted deep within their computer," it read. "On Christmas Day, 1998, the logic bomb part of this 'virus' will become active, wreaking havoc upon the entire planet's networks.
"The virus can be stopped. But not by mortals."
The note said an "antidote" program will be made available if hacker Kevin Mitnick is released. Mitnick was indicted last year on charges involving a multimillion-dollar crime wave in cyberspace.
Diane Hunt, a spokeswoman for the company, said the message was up for only 10 to 15 minutes and a few thousand people saw it.
"We immediately took action to see the extent of the damage and moved to correct it," she said. "And about that virus? There is, in fact, no virus."
Yahoo! is a computer directory widely used for searching the Internet. The note appeared briefly in place of the Yahoo! home page, preventing people online from using the search engine, which got 17.2 million visits in October.
Jonathan Wheat, manager of the Anti-Virus Lab at the National Computer Security Association, said it is at least theoretically possible to exploit security flaws on the Internet and implant such a virus. But he said he doubts this group of hackers -- already known to security experts -- pulled it off.
"That's pretty much ridiculous," agreed Jamonn Campbell, an information security analyst at the association.
Wheat said there was little reason to be concerned that the popular Web site was hacked.
"A lot of Web sites get hacked constantly," he said. He said that while Yahoo! is a high-profile site and should be expected to have better security than most, "no site is completely hack-proof."
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
y