Yesterday, our primary domain www.thenetng.com was compromised by internet hackers, who criminally gained access to our servers and illegally took possession of our identity.
We are convinced this is a calculated attack by detractors to unsettle and distract us, knowing our third anniversary (April 26) is just around the corner, as well as the inaugural Nigerian Entertainment Conference holding next Friday.
This incident occurred in the early morning of Thursday April 18, and the hijackers immediately followed up with an email, announcing their operation and demanding $1,200 ransom to reclaim our property. They have since sent other emails, and made fresh requests, which we are reviewing with our lawyers, registrars and IT team.
It is the first time since we registered the domain in 2009, that such security breach would occur. And even though we considered our readers, advertisers and partners, our management took a firm decision not to engage with the criminals.
After careful considerations, we decided yesterday, that we will not be negotiating with the hijackers, that we will not bow to these cheap internet terrorists. And we will definitely not be paying the requested ransom money ($900 as at their last email).
Not only would doing otherwise set a wrong precedent for our growing industry, it would absolutely contradict everything this newspaper stands for.
We decided instead, to work with our registrar, our in –house IT team, and consultants to legitimately reclaim our domain, while setting up a new destination – www.thenetng.net as our home until this is resolved. We are aware this may take some time, but it is a sacrifice we are willing to make.
As you read this, all our other domains, including .net, .info. .tv, .org, .com.ng are up and running, with our full database and all feeds intact.
We thank our friends and partners, especially media colleagues for the calls and support, as well as the many readers here and abroad for their patience during this time.
Please enjoy our content on www.thenetng.net, and tell your friends of our new but temporary home.
All those interested in registering or finding out about the Nigerian Entertainment Conference holding on Friday April 26, can email their details to nec@thenetng.com.
Thanks for your time. Thanks for your understanding.
Ayeni Adekunle
Publisher
17 comments:
SMART MOVE. I LOVE THIS! KUDOS!!!
Good to have you guys back.
All this grammar you guys keep speaking - your so called lawyers, registrar and "in-house IT team". Dude, you lost your domain name registration. Probably you didn't renew your domain name and pay the small $10 or $15 a year fee.
And they didn't need to hack your system to possess your domain name since you are not the registrar of your domain name. So telling us all these stories.
You lost the domain name.
Great, I personally think that is the best step to be taken.. It shows that these hackers are cheap and not worth negotiating anything with..
The rest of the work is left to the Social medias lovers; to spread the message abroad and start from the new leaf with NET...
A kidnapped domain? I've never heard of this before. Can't they trace the terrorists with the email sent? There are softwares on the net used to trace the i p where the mail came from. They should not pay that money oh
Good job guys! Mr President and all your "committees" take a cue from this
Na wa o the hackers are so poverty ridden, $900, I mean that is less that 150k. I think NET has done the right thing.
the NET has done the right thing. Poor and Stupid hackers demanding for just about 150k.
I posted for the first
whow God help me not us
This is a lesson for some of us. Great proactive action.
Warevs
Typical Nigerians and their Gimmick! Always sounds like their politicians - Our IT Team, Our Team of Lawyers! You lost your domain to a professional Dominer, even his name and contact address is clearly displayed on the WHOIS Server info.
Stop these gimmick and own up to your failure. I once lost a N1,200,000 WORTH Domain. Learn from your mistake!
Lol.we don hear!
AT LEAST, HACKING YOUR OWN WEBSITE FOR PUBLICITY DOES WORK, AND JUST IN TIME TOO FOR YOUR ANNIVERSARY AND CONFERENCE. WAY TO GO!!! WELL, EXCEPT WE LIBERS ARE NOT AS DUMB AS YOU OBVIOUSLY ARE ...
@Ayeni Adekunle, get in touch with Google and microsoft and tell them your problem. Also get in touch with high class IT expects. You can hack it back. Fight back now.
People close to you are involved. Real hackers do not demand for money and always release the sites later. Shine your eyes.
Very funny! thenetng.com was hijacked, u're transferred d web content to thenetng.net, so how come u're still welcoming NEC registration information via nec@thenetng.com? I expect Ayeni to be smarter than this... @losjepush
This kind of blogs are always knowledgeable and really i enjoyed reading this post. Cvtreasures
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