bortiz@herald-leader.com
Fark.com has sued a man it accuses of attempting to hack into the e-mail and computers of its staff members.
The Web site, founded in Lexington, allows members to comment on postings of oddball news stories. It has developed a large national following.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington on Tuesday, says an unknown computer hacker sent e-mails on Aug. 8 imploring Fark staff members to visit a particular Web site. For the next four days, Fark staff received forged e-mails that appeared to come from other staff members, containing links to three Web sites. The links contained Trojan horse programs, malicious software that allows secret unauthorized remote access to computers.
The lawsuit says the purpose of the programs appeared to be to steal passwords from infected computers and download them to a computer in Tennessee. It says the hacker attempted to log in to Fark e-mail and staff member accounts using stolen password information.
The hacker got into one of the e-mail accounts of a Fark moderator, said the Web site’s founder, Drew Curtis of Versailles. The infection did not affect the Web site, he said.
“We got lucky because they did not get all the way in,” Curtis said.
Curtis says he is “99.9 percent sure” he has identified the hacker, who he believes works at a Memphis television station. He said he is waiting to obtain information via subpoena to confirm his suspicions.
“That’s what is weird: We don’t know what they were trying to do,” Curtis said.
The lawsuit seeks undisclosed economic and punitive damages and a permanent injunction against future hacking attempts.
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