Hackers "took over" Nike.com on Wednesday morning and
"channeled all would-be visitors to a Web site that
encourages people to protest at an upcoming Australian forum
on the global economy," according to Andy Dworkin of the
Portland OREGONIAN. Starting at around 7:00am ET yesterday
morning, anyone who tried to access Nike.com was "bounced to
the s11.org Web site, which features pictures of protests
under the banner headline 'global justice is coming --
prepare now.'" The site promotes s11 Alliance, a "loose
affiliation" of groups that plan to picket against the
September 11 World Economic Forum in Melbourne. Nike Dir of
Internal Communications Corby Casler said that Nike workers
restored the site "after several hours." Casler "had no
estimate for what the hacking cost Nike in lost sales or
damage to its corporate image." Since the site was
interrupted only for a few hours, Casler said, "We don't
think the damage to the brand [was] great." The hacker
"seems to have somehow gained control" of Nike.com through
FrugalName, a U.K. e-mail and Web site-forwarding service.
Casler said that the hackers "never got access to any of the
content on the site, including any information gathered from
Nike.com customers" (OREGONIAN, 6/22). Nike contacted the
FBI to investigate the incident (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/22).
