This weekend, two of the internet's biggest hip-hop websites were hacked by a hate group - and we don't just mean a bunch of "rockist" music critics. SOHH and AllHipHop had their pages replaced with offensive ones filled with racist slurs. The hip-hop-hating hackers also made off with personal information about employees at SOHH.
"It appears that hackers are specifically targeting black, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish youth who ascribe to hip-hop culture," SOHH said in a statement. "This is an international issue [and] is being addressed by the FBI and the Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group."
A group called "Anonymous" has claimed responsibility, but this does not seem to be the work of the same digital massif that declared war on scientologists last year. More likely, it is a splinter set of hackers, piggybacking on the group's well-publicised name.
AllHipHop's co-founders, Chuck Creekmur and Greg Watkins, were incensed, calling the racist hackers "cyber terrorists". "With all the social strides that we have seen for several years, it is sad to see that this sort of blatant, hateful racism still exists in 2008 - a time of tremendous possibility."
"Together, AllHipHop and SOHH are committed to relentlessly pursuing these attackers, using every resource available, to ensure the capture of these criminals and prevention of repeat offences."
On the bright side, when it comes to "relentlessly pursuing" people, possibly with violent intent, the hip-hop community is more suited to the task than, say, folk musicians. We bet the RZA knows how to trace an IP address.
