Danish Paper Attack Tracked To Tampa
TAMPA — A site for hackers credited with an attack on a Danish newspaper was taken down Wednesday morning by a Tampa company that says it hosted the site inadvertently.
3asfh.com and a companion site, 3asfh.net, were removed from the Internet by United Colocation/Sago Networks after the company was informed the site is being credited by jihadist hackers for taking down the Web site of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
The attacks were in retaliation for cartoons printed in the newspaper, including one depicting the prophet Mohammed in a bomb-shaped turban.
The Web attack being claimed on behalf of 3asfh.com is seen as part of that global response.
“This is a surprise to me,” Sago general manager Lee Kermode said Wednesday morning when asked whether his company was aware that one of the thousands of Web sites it hosts was part of an international controversy.
Kermode, who was traveling Tuesday and unavailable for comment for a story in Wednesday’s Tribune, said it is a violation of his company’s terms of agreement to launch attacks, spam or viruses. He said his company’s abuse response team would investigate.
The response team, he said, works closely with law enforcement to ensure no illegal activities are supported by the company’s equipment. The team took the sites off the Internet even though the company had received no complaints from individuals or law enforcement.
Sago Networks first heard about the site from the Tribune, the company said in an e-mail.
Although the hacking sites are down, a video giving credit to 3asfh.com for the attacks is available on the Internet. It appears on a site registered to Jamel Boudekhani, of St. Dennis, France, according to Network Solution’s WHOIS Internet registry.
No one answered Boudekhani’s telephone Wednesday afternoon.
A. Aaron Weisburd, who runs the Internet Haganah Web site that first tracked down 3asfh.com’s connection to the hacking of Jyllands-Posten, said he is glad the site was taken down.
“For me, it’s another skirmish in a long war with no foreseeable end,” he said.
