system: You are David Mercer, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Norml message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to All about "PDXNORML Website hakked".

They wrote:
>        Dear Customer,
>
>
>        It is with great regret that I inform you of bad news here at
>Pantless. At approximately midnight Sunday night/monday morning, somebody
>broke into the Pantless server and maliciously and completely destroyed
>virtually every component.  There is no system, no backup, no nothing.  A
>complete, 100% loss.
>
>        We are working as fast as we can to get a new replacement system
>installed.  I can't give a precise estimate, but it looks as though it will
>be at least a day before we can get the system up again.  As I mentioned,
>the loss was complete, total, and 100%.  You will need to upload your HTML
>and other files again once the server is operational.  I will attempt to
>help you out in any way possible, but of course getting the basic system
>essentials running again is first priority.
>
>        Fortuantely, we have a good suspect and an official FBI
>investigation is pending.  IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE OR WILL SUFFER ANY
>FINANCIAL LOSS DUE TO THIS INCIDENT, PLEASE PROVIDE ME AN ACCURATE ESTIMATE
>AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  This is important because the FBI needs this
>information so they can determine what type of crime to begin investigating.
>This information may also be required by the attorney general.
>
>        I can't give you any more details regarding the investigation at
>this time, but will keep you updated whenever possible.
>
>        I thank you for your patience in this matter and offer my sincerest
>apologies for the downtime.
>
>        I will not be available via email until we get the mail system up
>and running again.
>

Write your reply.

assistant: From: ???????????????????????????????????????????????????
Sent: 	Tuesday, June 18, 1996 4:36 PM
To: 	(Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: 	Portland NORML/OCTA web server taken out
Dear Portland NORML weekly news release recipient:
A very knowledgeable hacker got into the web server for Portland NORML
(http://www.pantless.com/~pdxnorml/) and the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act of 1997
(http://www.pantless.com/~octa/) on Sunday night/Monday morning about
midnight. All files and directories were totally destroyed. It will take
another day or two to get back online.
The Portland NORML weekly news release regularly directs readers to
information posted in our web pages. If you have tried to access those pages
since the hack attack, now you know why nothing is accessible. Keep trying -
again, 24 to 48 hours is the estimated time we'll be down. I won't waste
bandwidth with another message when we're back online.
I spoke on the phone with our sysop late Tuesday afternoon, June 18. He just
happened to be online when the hacker was at work and was alert enough to
notice things were acting oddly. To make a long story short, the hacker made
one small typo and our sysop was able to use that mistake to find out the
hacker was apparently a student at San Francisco State University whose name
I had better not mention in case it was appropriated by the hacker.
Pantless.com (Pantless Productions - named after the tendency of cyber types
to work long hours in their bathrobes...) has other clients and it's not
clear if the hacker was just being malicious or was targeting OCTA or
Portland NORML or what. This is a very unusual thing to befall a web server,
however. More details will be forthcoming in the Portland NORML weekly news
releases as they become available.
The authorities have been alerted.
The message below is from our sysop, FYI.
??????????
Portland NORML
??????????????????????
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12