A mystery hacker has been trying to discredit the company behind an Australian web-based technology news service by posting unauthorised reports, changing dates, bylines and editing stories, it is claimed.
The miscreant - whose intrusions were discovered only last month - had been tampering with websites operated by 4Square Media for two years, David Richards, the CEO of the company, said.
"As the CEO of 4Square Media we believe that there has been a systematic attempt to discredit 4Square Media by an individual or individuals who have gained illegal access to our content engine," Mr Richards wrote in an article on one of his company's websites.
His report appeared on the Smarthouse website shortly before ABC's Media Watch broadcast a lengthy segment last night in which it detailed numerous examples of apparent plagiarism.
Media Watch said it had identified 10 example of plagiarism in which articles on other websites had been reprinted "almost verbatim under Richards's sole byline".
"Im not a stupid person," Mr Richards said in a telephone interview today. "If I were going to take content from other sites, I wouldn't be leaving my name on it."
He said investigations revealed that the hacker was posting the swiped content over the top of existing stories.
Worse still, he was still unsure if the sites had been secured, meaning that the hacker could continue to disrupt his operations.
"This is an out and out attempt to discredit us," he said.
Asked why he had not yet reported the intrusions, Mr Richards said he was still in the process of assembling evidence.
"Once we have that, I will have no qualms about bringing in the authorities to investigate the matter," he said.
Mr Richards said that the hacker's work had resulted in allegations of plagiarism being levelled at him and his company.
He said that the unauthorised access was detected by programmers working for an unnamed company in India, which had been building a new website for his company.
Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes said in light of the story his team was creating a new award to be called the Phantom of the Internet Trophy.
The prize would be awarded for the most original explanation for apparent plagiarism, he said.
News source:theage
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