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July 22, 2005Blocked out of their own blogs
Contents of two blogs, including Xiaxue's, deleted and rude message left in place
By Chua Hian Hou
TWO blogs, including that of popular local blogger Wendy Cheng, who writes under the pseudonym Xia- xue, have been hijacked. Their contents have been deleted and a rude message has been left in their place.
Both were hit early yesterday morning. .
The first inkling Miss Cheng had that something was wrong was when she tried to check her e-mail at about 4am and found she could not log in.
Alarmed, she tried checking her blogsite and found herself locked out there too.
Frantic and crying, she sent out messages from another of her e-mail accounts to her service providers asking to have her accounts restored to her.
When she was finally able to access them at about 6am, she found her 3,000 or so messages and list of contacts had been removed and her three-year-old online journal trashed.
In its place was a rude six-line message, which referred to her as a 'bitch'.
'I felt so helpless,' she said, sounding angry and frustrated when contacted on her mobile phone yesterday afternoon.
'My blog is my biggest achievement in life, and losing it is my worst fear.'
The 20-year-old believes the hijacker guessed the passwords to her two accounts.
Her service providers have since restored most of her blog, but have not been able to recover her e-mail.
Yesterday, she made a report to the police and tapped out one of her expletive-filled accounts of what happened on her blogsite.
Local blogging community site Tomorrow.sg said the blog belonging to 'Anna Wonkytong' had also been hijacked.
The writer could not be contacted, but when The Straits Times visited the site, it found the blog had been removed and there was a short message written in a similar style to that on Miss Cheng's site.
Hijacking blogsites, websites and e-mail accounts is considered an offence under the Computer Misuse Act, said police spokesman Razif Mohamed.
Anyone found guilty faces up to three years' jail and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
He added that the police have received six reports of hijacked website and e-mail accounts so far this year. Miss Cheng's is the first one involving a blog.
Singapore Internet Research Centre director Randolph Kluver, said: 'It was only a matter of time before a blog was hijacked, and Xiaxue was an obvious target.
'She had a popular blog, and in her previous writings, she disrespected other popular bloggers, like the Sarong Party Girl, so this may be a way of getting back at her.'
Indeed, 'Ray7' wrote on her site: 'If she likes attacking people and thinks that she can get away with it... then she just had a taste of her own medicine.'
His note was among more than 60 comments posted on Miss Cheng's blogsite. Most urged her to keep on blogging.
No matter how unhappy you are with a blogger, Dr Kluver said, hijacking the blog is not a solution.
'Disagree with the writer, but do it in another, legal, way, like setting up a blog to blast her.'
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