Defacers Contest Web Site Killed

Affinity Internet, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fl., which operated the site through its Gardena, Ca.-based subsidiary Affinity Hosting, LLC, shut down the site late Wednesday for violating a service agreement, according to an AP wire story on Thursday.

The company declined to release the Affinity Hosting customer who set up the Web site, citing privacy restrictions.

According to records, the site was registered to an address and phone number in Amityville, N.Y. The e-mail address, recorded as the administrative contact for the Web site, however, carries a domain name registered by Typhoon Games, Limited, a games maker based in Hong Kong which specializes in localizing PC and console games for the Asian market.

On Wednesday, security firm Internet Security Systems alerted its customers that it had been monitoring the defacing contest -- which may result in the disruption of thousands of Web sites on Sunday, July 6 -- and noted it had evidence that the groups responsible were based in Brazil and Hong Kong.

Attempts to reach the site via the Web Thursday were unsuccessful, and resulted in the standard Internet Explorer "The page cannot be displayed" error message.