Thanks to a lack of security and a bad public image
It seems that someone in the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tech department forgot to set up proper security for their website. As of today, the entire website has been wiped clean. It started when some ne’erdowell hackers found a way to put a speed bump on the site with a link to a very slow SQL query posted on Reddit.
While this was funny enough as it totally clogged up the RIAA servers causing the site to come to a virtual halt, it’s been suggested that another (perhaps more advanced) hacker decided to take this a step further. Which could be an explanation as to why the RIAA site is currently completely devoid of content.
Some comments on Reddit suggest that this was an intentional move by the hackers. Others say the apparent wiping of the RIAA database was just a bonus effect of the original query. A few claim that they have been able to see the content today. So it could be that, by slowing the site down so much, it simply cannot display the content properly and locks up.
Either way, it’s further proof that many of these big corporations don’t know how the internet works and they can’t appreciate the need for a secure system. Or they are too cheap to hire programmers of the caliber needed to insure such security. For the sake of the RIAA, I wonder if they’ve backed up their data.
And in a funny sidenote, it seems that the RIAA has chosen to use a content management system based on the open-source PHP language and MySQL database running on a Linux system. I guess the cost of all those lawyers going after peer-to-peer users was too much for them to actually afford to buy a secure, licensed system.
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Comments on Reddit
oops.
I can’t say I’m surprised, the RIAA were designed to stop music piracy, but instead decided to go after anyone who uses BitTorrent (even for legal stuff), sue innocent people, etc. However, what do you mean when you say that they should have bought a secure system? Linux is the most secure system I’ve ever used. Open-source CMS systems are very secure. 99% of the time someone thinks that Linux is not secure, it’s because they don’t know how to properly set up the security systems.
Hey Doug. What I meant was exactly what you said. It wasn’t a jab at Linux or Open Source. It was a jab at the RIAA for not setting up their security properly. I wasn’t saying they ‘should’ buy a more secure system. I was just pointing out the irony of them possibly relying on a freebie system as being just fine instead of paying to make it secure.
The RIAA is a parasite organization that makes it’s money off the talent others. They have to sue innocent poor victims to protect their gravy train. They only know how to make money not thru their own skills and talents but by force. I call on the Net community and Hackers to keep these assholes off line. It is no different than picket lines. Anyone with bots and those with hacking skills should provide them maximum grief and put them out of business. This is an act of civil disobedience that is absolutely necessary in todays world. We didn’t start it we should finish it and them.
Well, let’s get one thing clear. Yes the RIAA went overboard with filing mega-money suits against individual downloaders, but these were not ‘innocent poor victims’. Copying music, film or any other copyrighted material without permission is illegal. Plain and simple.
Yes the RIAA used excessive force. And yes there were bigger fish they should have gone after such as those creating the peer to peer software. But don’t make it sound like these people sitting at home downloading music were somehow ‘innocent poor victims’. Stealing is stealing, no matter how anyone wants to try and justify it.
The RIAA may seem like some horrible Gestapo thanks to recent actions, but they are there to protect not only the industry, but the artists as well. Remember, those bands you love whose music you trade would also lose out big time if everyone was to stop buying music.
Music Math: Free + Download = Freeloader.
Illegal downloaders are no better than music moguls, just smaller.