FBI Lost Control on Megaupload Domains, someone 'Hijacked' it to Host cams and dating ads
Megaupload was once a famous and highly popular site for pirate and copyright contents that agency seized from Kim Dotcom almost five years ago. When Kim Dotcom was arrested in 2012, his assets seized along with his website, MegaUpload.org, all of the servers and their files, Megaupload’s former domain names, including Megastuff.co, Megaworld.mobi, Megaclicks.org, Megaupload.com, and Megavideo.com. the associated services and the data of many millions of users, it shut it down with the purpose of preventing what it saw as further piracy. But nobody expected the site to eventually be used by advertisers.
Now, one of the most popular sites owned and operated by the FBI has been serving porn as well.
While Dotcom continues to battle his extradition and a return of his assets, the website MegaUpload.org does indeed appear to have been taking over. Visiting it is probably NSFW, so be careful, but if you do, you’ll see a number of scantily clad ladies, along with links to cam sites, adult dating and personal sites and hook up services.
FBI-owned Megaupload.org and several other domains were allegedly serving up ads for "casual sex," "adult cam chat," "adult affair dating," and "live sex cams" and other 18+ entertainment.
Megaupload domains was not the result of some sophisticated hack that allowed hackers to serve you soft porn and sex ads, rather the FBI had "lost control" of the domains in the same way it lost control last year.
As TorrentFreak explains, this is actually something that has happened before. All MegaUpload domains are still owned by the FBI, but they point to name servers which occasionally expire and the federal authority isn’t particularly great at remembering to update them.
So when they expire, occasionally someone catches on and takes ownership, therefore making it possible to put adverts on any seized sites that point to that particular name server. Sites like MegaUpload.org.
Of course these defunct, seized and shut down domains don’t exactly generate a lot of traffic, so it’s not like the people who have taken control are going to generate much income from them. However it does make the FBI look rather unprofessional, especially considering Dotcom hasn’t been to trial for his criminal charges as of yet, which means his property was not only seized, but is now in control by someone else, completely unrelated to his trial.
And they’re making money from it, no matter how miniscule.
Last year someone managed to buy google.com domain. A strange thing happened at 1:20 AM Eastern Time on Tuesday, Sanmay Ved, an ex-Google employee and current-Amazon employee, September 29, 2015 experienced something of a shock when he found that the world's largest search engine website, Google.com, was "available" for purchase.
It's the cost of the most-trafficked domain in the world — Only $12. Expecting to get an error message, Ved added the domain to his shopping cart and made payment. The entire purchasing process went through without any difficulty.
Though the federal authorities reportedly removed the nameservers altogether to fix the issue, the exact identity of who got control of Megaupload.org and its associated sites is not known. However, it is clear that the feds have not learned from their past mistakes.
The FBI has yet to comment on what happened to the domains.
Now, one of the most popular sites owned and operated by the FBI has been serving porn as well.
While Dotcom continues to battle his extradition and a return of his assets, the website MegaUpload.org does indeed appear to have been taking over. Visiting it is probably NSFW, so be careful, but if you do, you’ll see a number of scantily clad ladies, along with links to cam sites, adult dating and personal sites and hook up services.
FBI-owned Megaupload.org and several other domains were allegedly serving up ads for "casual sex," "adult cam chat," "adult affair dating," and "live sex cams" and other 18+ entertainment.
Megaupload domains was not the result of some sophisticated hack that allowed hackers to serve you soft porn and sex ads, rather the FBI had "lost control" of the domains in the same way it lost control last year.
As TorrentFreak explains, this is actually something that has happened before. All MegaUpload domains are still owned by the FBI, but they point to name servers which occasionally expire and the federal authority isn’t particularly great at remembering to update them.
So when they expire, occasionally someone catches on and takes ownership, therefore making it possible to put adverts on any seized sites that point to that particular name server. Sites like MegaUpload.org.
Of course these defunct, seized and shut down domains don’t exactly generate a lot of traffic, so it’s not like the people who have taken control are going to generate much income from them. However it does make the FBI look rather unprofessional, especially considering Dotcom hasn’t been to trial for his criminal charges as of yet, which means his property was not only seized, but is now in control by someone else, completely unrelated to his trial.
And they’re making money from it, no matter how miniscule.
Last year someone managed to buy google.com domain. A strange thing happened at 1:20 AM Eastern Time on Tuesday, Sanmay Ved, an ex-Google employee and current-Amazon employee, September 29, 2015 experienced something of a shock when he found that the world's largest search engine website, Google.com, was "available" for purchase.
It's the cost of the most-trafficked domain in the world — Only $12. Expecting to get an error message, Ved added the domain to his shopping cart and made payment. The entire purchasing process went through without any difficulty.
Though the federal authorities reportedly removed the nameservers altogether to fix the issue, the exact identity of who got control of Megaupload.org and its associated sites is not known. However, it is clear that the feds have not learned from their past mistakes.
The FBI has yet to comment on what happened to the domains.
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