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Show UAC Asks FBI To Investigate RS2477 Web Site Hacking SALT LAKE CITY A Utah Association of Counties Internet web site dealing with the controversial con-troversial RS2477 rights-of-way was the target of ecoterrorists in early July and the county association asso-ciation has called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the crime. The web site, "v-ww.rs2477roads.com" is the official RS2477 site on the World Wide Web and contains approximately 100,000 words on the RS2477 issue. The ecoter-rorist ecoter-rorist tampering occurred in the early morning hours of July 9 when the entire content of the site was erased or downloaded and replaced with a set of foreign language files. Such unauthorized un-authorized entry and vandalism of an Internet web site is a federal crime and is handled by a special unit of the FBI, the International Computer Crimes Unit. "In light of the increasing number of ecoterrorist incidents in Utah, this criminal act is not at all unexpected," said Emery County Commissioner Randy Johnson, chair of the county association's Public Lands Oversight Over-sight Committee and supervisor of the web site. "The most significant thing this criminal act illustrates is the extreme weakness weak-ness of the position of the environmental envi-ronmental extremists on this issue. Like those in history who have had to resort to book burning, these ecoterrorists have to try to keep facts and balanced analysis on natural resource issues like RS2477 out of the public arena." Terrorism experts define "ecoterror" as any crime comitted for the ostensible purpose of "defending nature." This particular ecoterrorist incident inci-dent was quickly reported to the county association and the authentic auth-entic page with all its files and links was quickly restored. The county association noted that the Internet is, plagued with this kind of tampering, called "hacking." While security measures are slowly being improved, even (See UAC Asks FBI To Investigate Hacking Page 4A) RS2477 Web Site Hacked; UAC Asks FBI To Investigate From Front Page sitesi and computer networks with very sophisticated security systems, sys-tems, including those maintained by the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, have been the victims of such illegal activity. acti-vity. The county association has instituted additional security measures mea-sures for its RS2477 site but admits there is little which can be done to guarantee the same type of criminal activity will not occur again, Johnson said. "This attempt to criminally "censure" a particular point of view to prevent the public and policymakers from having access to critical facts and analysis on an important public policy issue like RS2477 strikes at the very (See RS2477 Web Site Hacked; FBI Will Investigate Page 5A) RS2477 Web Site Is Hacked From Page 4A foundation of our democracy," Johnson noted. "It should be condemned con-demned in the strongest possible terms by everyone involved in this issue, no matter what position they take on the RS2477 issue itself. "It is absolutely clear that we cannot let these ecoterrorists succeed," suc-ceed," Johnson continued. "The Utah Association of Counties is planning several programs to help combat this growing threat and will be talking to other organizations organi-zations and individuals as well." A letter written to the head of the International Computer Crime Unit by Johnson says that the damage was "unquestionably the work of ecoterrorists" because "they are the only ones who would see any benefit from hacking hack-ing our site." Johnson raises the question of the timing, saying that the web site has been in operation for the past 10 months and while it has been the subject of "disparaging remarks by various eco-activists," no attempt to remove the information informa-tion had been made until the July 9 hacking. In response to the FBI's request re-quest for what might be any helpful help-ful information, Johnson points out that just a month before the hacking of RS2477 files, the county association had launched its aggressive "SUWA WATCH!" campaign highlighting the dishonest dishon-est and misleading information being circulated by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an environmental en-vironmental extremist group headquartered head-quartered in Utah" in narticular, certain RS2477 information. "We're sorry to hear they've been having problems with their web site, and we're sorry they're insisting on rolling around in the mud on this, said Heidi Mcintosh, a SUWA staff attorney in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. "It's totally accusatory and defamatory," she said. "There is absolutely no evidence that they can produce. They should be talking substance instead of ' making ridiculous charges." Mcintosh said SUWA's web site which has been in place longer than UAC's is supervised in Washington, D.C. by the organization's Public Education Officer Tom Price. In the meantime, the UAC is conducting a survey of county commissioners and sheriffs throughout the state of suspected ecoterrorist incidents. Johnson said the counties association is also prepared to offer a substantial reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the damage to the RS2477 web site if approved by the FBI as helpful. |