Occupy MN website hacked

By Jessica Lussenhop Tue., Nov. 1 2011 at 12:13 PM

OccupyMN.org died briefly on the table.

Occupy MN devotees awoke this morning to find the group's website OccupyMN.org was down. All that was left was a blank iPage with the words "This site has been suspended."

According to Occupy MN spokeswoman April Lukes-Streich that's because some malicious hacker has been attacking the website since this weekend.

"We're still trying to figure it out," she says.

Over the weekend, Lukes-Streich says, a mysterious new tab appeared on the website that was completely different from the site's usual updates on marches, general assembly meetings and calls for donations. She describes it almost like a banking website with fields for personal information -- a classic "phishing" scam dummy page used for stealing personal information. Odder still was the fact that it was written in Spanish.

Nothing to see here.

Occupy MN organizer Osha Karow --the original owner of the domain name -- went in and removed the code and files for the page, but this morning the same IP address tried to put it back up. That's when the web hosting company iPage suspended the account and took down the site for "suspicious activity."

Lukes-Streich says the Occupy MN team is working with iPage to rebuild and better protect the site, but also to try to figure out who the hacker could be. All she knows is that the IP address is from Massachusetts; however, Massachusetts is also where an affiliate of iPage is located.

"We're not closely affiliated with the East Coast or to someone who would do something malicious like that," she says.

Karow just managed to get the site back up and running, and says since no personal information is collected on the site, occupiers who used it are safe. In case of another shutdown, protesters should consult their sister site OccupyMpls.org for the latest info.

Across the country at other Occupy movements, allegations of hacking have flown between occupiers and law enforcement. Occupy Wall Street hackers are threatening the Fox News website for its coverage of the protests, while the Boston police say an 'Anonymous' faction of Occupy Boston stole officers' personal information from its site.

We'll update if the culprits in Occupy MN's case become known.

Previous coverage:

Tags:

April Lukes-Streich, hacked, iPage, Occupy MN, Occupy Mpls, Occupy Wall Street, occupymn.org, Osha Karow

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Mn Voter

I'd have more belief in these protestors if they actually had a clue: Former Democrat Govenor and Senator from New Jersey, Jon Corzine, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, was one of Obama's main conduits to Wall Street, a donor base that has been a challenge for the president to hold in line. Corzine has been a major bundler, already reaching the $500,000-plus level as reported by the Obama campaign. He has also been active in arranging meetings between disgruntled donors and the president, including a secret meeting earlier this summer with leaders from a number of Wall Street firms. It is reported that Corzine had language in his contract to let him join the Obama administration if Obama is re-elected.

Where is the OWS outrage over at the White House? Klobuchar, Dayton, Franken - TELL OBAMA TO RETURN THE PEOPLES MONEY!

Worker

Both parties are pawns of Wall Street. This is why we need a labor party here in the United States. We are the only industrialized country not to have one. And we have the worst social safety net. Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor! www.masspartyoflabor.org

ShakyJim

Connect with us at http://occupyboston.org/. We have great computer science people and they'd be happy to help with your anonymous hacker from MA. Use stuff like facebook to connect with us, and talk to us about how we can help each other. Just try to connect with "Media" or the "Media Tent." Either way we should all try to connect nationally, and hopefully we can help each other and give each other logistical support.

ShakyJim

Connect with us at http://occupyboston.org/. We have great computer science people and they'd be happy to help with your anonymous hacker from MA. Just try to connect with "Media" or the "Media Tent." Either way we should all try to connect nationally, and hopefully we can help each other and give each other logistical support.

ShakyJim

Occupy Boston has loads of tech and computer science people who'd probably be willing to help you figure out who hacked you. Check out http://occupyboston.org/ for contact info. We have a great computer science team who might be able to help you. Our movements need to connect better. We had a battle setting up Occupy Boston too, after the Boston Police attacked us they tried to censor the police brutality--they even tried to delete our youtube videos as we put them up. I think we were hacked a couple times too. Communication and collaboration between camps is the future of Occupied, so connect with us at Occupy Boston via facebook and our website. try to connect with "Media" or the "Media Tent."