July 8, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Searching for explanations for last month's high-profile hack, a ICANN (icann.org) spokesperson said that the site hijacking of several of its domains was due to a security leak at the registrar that manages those sites - identified as Register.com (register.com).
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"The DNS redirect was a result of an attack on ICANN's registrar's systems," according to an official ICANN statement. "A full, confidential, security report from that registrar has since been provided to ICANN with respect to this attack."
Although the organization that oversees the Web's top-level domain naming ICANN did not name the registrar explicitly, a WHOIS (whois.net) search finds that Register.com manages the redirected domains and the primary icann.org and iana.org domains, Computerworld (computerworld.com) reported Monday.
Individuals who attempted to go to the affected sites were redirected to a site with the hackers' message to the ICANN: "You think that you control the domains but you don't! Everybody knows wrong. We control the domains including ICANN! Don't you believe us?"
Since the attack, ICANN has been working on an internal review of its security procedures and making improvements where necessary.
