The year 2000 marked the fifth year AOL's content was altered by hackers. On May 26, loyal fans of AOL's "football manager" game in the U.K. found the names of the top teams had been replaced with messages.

AOL is nothing but kiddie porn.

How secure is AOL?

Visiting the U.K. Sports keyword brought up a menu of football-related choices -- but after users clicked on the innocent-looking link for "Current Rankings," they were in for a surprise. The mysterious change had converted AOL's slick green letters into a personal bulletin board. Newcomers had to wonder if the top three names really were the highest-scoring teams -- or if they'd also been replaced by grafitti.

Rob Was Here '00

RobWasHere 2

IXA Sucks ;x

This makes the 35th AOL content area that has been compromised by hackers. Over the years they've hit targets in virtually every possible category -- sports, business, entertainment, and news -- as the table at the bottom of this page shows.

A screen-shot of the compromised area appears below...

Three weeks later, AOL still hadn't been able to repair the damage. Instead, they replaced the compromised screen with an announcement that the area was unavailable. From the pictures, one would gather they're pretty upset.

Other Recent Attacks

U.K. Football Manager Game	(5/26/00)
NetNoir (again!!)	(9/8/98)
Chat room listing	(9/6/98)
Real Fans Sports Network	(8/21/98)
ACLU	(5/18/98)
Member Directory	(??? through 4/10/98)
Traveller's Advantage	(1/26/98)
NetNoir (again!)	(12/29/97)
NetNoir	(12/9/97)
Roto-Zone	(10/28/97)
Extreme Fans	(10/28/97)
PC Hardware forum	(10/26/97)
AOL Live	(10/11/97)
Reebok	(10/11/97)
Lifestyles channel	(10/11/97)
OnQ / GLCF	(10/11/97)
Steve Case's Update	(10/11/97)
ABC KidZine	(10/11/97)
Jewish Community	(10/11/97)
Geraldo Rivera	(10/3/97 through 10/4/97)
MoneyWhiz	(9/27/97)
Business Week	(9/18/97)
Digital Cities San Diego	(8/16/97)
Spin magazine	(8/10/97)
Academic Assistance Center	6/29/97)
Fantasy Realm	(6/23/97)
Kids Kicks	(6/19/97)
Thrive	(6/12/97 through 6/13/97)
Stats Store	(5/17/97 through 5/19/97)
AOL Glossary	(5/9/97 through 5/23/97)
The New York Times	(4/29/97)
FTP sites of several AOL employees	(4/26/97 through 4/28/97)
GameWiz (Again!)	(4/25/97)
GameWiz	(4/4/97)
The Hub	(3/31/97)

In addition, hackers hit AOL's Court TV area in November of 1996.