Disabled artists websites hit by hacker
A hacker has cut into Christmas sales for a group of disabled artists in the Kootenays – taking down their websites during the holiday shopping season. The artists are part of a government program that helps disabled people create web-based stores to sell local art. But someone hacked those websites last week, making them unusable during one of the busiest times for holiday shopping. The Virtual Mall Canada website has links to more than two dozen online stores. But last weekend, half of the websites were taken down by a hacker and replaced with a note saying, "We got you. Ha, ha,ha." Kay Ryan, who helps run the training program for entrepreneurs with disabilities, says the hacker wiped out a lot of hard work. "Everybody was really disappointed because they worked so hard to get ready for the Christmas season,"she says. "You know they were shocked. This is their first year on the internet, and they're saying, 'What's going on, what's happening?'" Ryan says the problem was traced back to hackers in Russia, who took down 7,500 sites that same day. Ryan says it took four days to get the websites up and running again. And now she worries it's too late for many Christmas shoppers to buy on-line.
Reproduced from an article published by CBC
© CBC
The original article can be viewed here:
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/bc_virtual-mall-hacker20041220....
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