Web terrorists - Internet

South Florida CEO, Oct, 2002 by Raquel Kaufman

* MetroGuide.com, a Hollywood-based provider of hospitality info and e-commerce, faced off twice recently with hackers from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. First, the hackers wrote themselves in as owners of MetroGuide site LodgingGuide.net, locking the company out. Two months later, the same group hijacked eight Web sites from MetroGuide, including hotelguidesales.com.

While MetroGuide regained its sites after brief confrontations, the hackers picked the wrong company to mess with. MetroGuide has successfully pursued legal action several times against companies which copied content from its sites. As MetroGuide president Mark Metz says, "Anyone who knows anything about MetroGuide and the war we have declared on Internet and digital piracy knows that we are not going to take blatant theft of our intellectual property lying down."