Bits, Bytes and Barks
Nation of Islam site defaced
The Nation Of Islam's Internet home page was defaced within two days after the Million Man March.
A hacker electronically broke into the Internet site and peppered it with cyber-graffiti files.
The page opened with its Netscape browser title changed to "The Bigots Of Islam HOmeb0y pAg3!@#."
On the page itself, the opening read, "In the name of some goofy god that does not exist! @#.' The site continued with previous welcome message of "As-Salaam Alaikum (Peace be unto you)," defaced by another set of parentheses: "(As if we really belive that)" (sic).
A source at Object Oriented Information Systems (02IS), the Internet consulting company that runs Afrinet Central, home of the Nation of Islam page, said Nation of Islam staffers alerted 02IS to the break-in two days after the march. The source added that the company is working on its computer security to prevent future attacks.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company had taken Nation's Home Page off the Internet while it eliminated the hacker files. The site, which includes speeches by Minister Louis Farrakhan, resumed at the same address, http://www.afrinet.net/~islam/
Timothy K. Maloy, The Internet Newsroom, editors@DGS.dgsys.com
Bound for California
Jennifer LaFleur, who has helped hundreds of journalists learn computer-assisted reporting, recently left as NICAR's training director. In late October, she started her new job as database editor for the San Jose Mercury News. She can be reached at (408) 920-5728. or send e-mail jenster@aol.com
Bound for Omaha
Carol Napolitano, formerly computer-assisted reporting coordinator at The Times in Munster, Ind., will be joining the Omaha World-Herald on Nov. 20. She will bring her CAR skills to the paper as a member of its newly created public affairs reporting team.
Swedish IRE begins listserv
Swedish IRE recently began MEDIA, a European listserv on journalism, investigative reporting and computer-assisted reporting. The list includes bilingual journalists able to help English-speaking reporters covering Europe. To subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@sokrates.mip.ki.se. If you have questions, send e-mail to Michel Bajuk, head of the Swedish IRE-secretariate, at bajuk@jmk.su.se
Join NICAR on the Internet
Don't forget to keep up with NICAR on the Internet. Subscribe to our listserve and join in as reporters talk about how to do the job better. E-mail to LISTSERV@MIZZOU1.MISSOURIEDU. In the message, on the first line, write: subscribe NICAR-L your name. To join IRE on the Internet, the instructions are the same except, on first line, write: subscribe ire-1 your name.