Hacker Says He Crashed New York Mag Website Because He Hates NYC, Not Cosby's Alleged Rape Victims
Last night at 9:00 p.m., New York magazine's website published a cover story that had thousands of shares within an hour—a project 6 months in the making, it compiles the stories and portraits of 35 of the 46 women who have publicly alleged that Bill Cosby raped or sexually assaulted them. Early this morning, the entire website crashed, reportedly the work of a hackerwho has directed distaste not at the Cosby rape story, but at New York City itself.
As of 10 a.m., New York magazine has not confirmed the cause of the crash.
On Twitter, many readers posited that the website's crash was due to the positive response to the piece, and a subsequent traffic overload.
But just before 7:00 a.m., the Daily Dot reported that the site had been intentionally overwhelmed by a hacker named ThreatKing. The blog spoke with a New York employee under the condition of anonymity, who said that "they assumed the site was on the receiving end of a DDoS attack." Reached via Skype, the hacker stressed that the cyber attack was not directed at the 35 women who shared their stories of rape and abuse:
“Many stupid people at [sic] New York,” ThreatKing told The Daily Dot over a Skype chat. “I have not even seen the cover, LOL,” he said.
The hacker's feelings about New York apparently stem from a recent, unpleasant visit to the city:
ThreatKing said his hatred of New York City is based on a visit to the city gone wrong. “I went to new York 2 months ago. It was really bad,” ThreatKing said. “Someone pranked me. Everyone started laughing and shit. The first 10 hours being there. Some African-American tried to prank me with a fake hand gun.”That's why, he said, he “[wants] to see people die at [sic] New York.” “I've seen many pranks gone wrong at new york. That got me pissed. That's why I chose New York.”
ThreatKing took responsibility for the attack under the Twitter handle @Vikingdom2016, and has been tweeting frequent updates since the middle of the night:
— Vikingdom2016 (@Vikingdom2016) July 27, 2015
Lol, we ruined New York big night.
— Vikingdom2016 (@Vikingdom2016) July 27, 2015
If all goes according to ThreatKing's plan—and the hacker is indeed responsible—the site, which went down just before 1:00 a.m., will be down for 14 hours at least. The hacker also told the Daily Dot that he plans to target more websites with "New York" in the title, including the New York Times, the New York City FBI bureau, and even New York University.
Even if this morning's cyber attack did not specifically target the 35 women who were brave enough to speak in detail about being raped by Cosby, the timing of the alleged hack is at least coincidentally relevant to the profile. Many of the survivors spoke about the importance of social media, and how the internet has emboldened them to speak out, knowing that a larger group of people will take note.
One victim, lawyer Tamara Green, first went public with her story in 2005, after Andrea Constand claimed that Cosby assaulted her. told New York:
People often these days say, "Well, why didn't you take it to the police?" Andrea Constand went to the police in 2005—how’d it work out for her? Not at all. In 2005, Bill Cosby still had control of the media. In 2015, we have social media. We can’t be disappeared. It’s online and can never go away.
Still, the public reception to the profile, even in the first few hours of its publication, proves Green right.
We have reached out to New York magazine for comment, and will update with any further information. Until the website goes back up, here's a readable version of the piece:
UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: New York magazine's website is now back up and running.