"Nike owns Reebok."

Wait a minute, that's not right. Nike and Reebok are competitors! Why did the Reebok area on AOL say that "Nike owns Reebok?"

AOL Watch readers know the answer. On October 11, AOL lost control of at least seven of their areas. Mysterious interlopers scrawled home-grown messages in place of the corporation's content--and all seven of the attacks appear to be the work of the same two vandals. "Get the Air Hex's" one bullet advises, "and the Air Glaze's."

"Glaze and Hex stopped by" read the title bar in AOL's Jewish Community Area.

"GLAZE & HEX hacked US" keyword OnQ announced.

"Hey there sexy," read the title bar in Steve Case's Community Update.

At least 22 areas have been altered since this spring -- and AOL's content-providers are starting to notice. After a June 12 attack on keyword "Thrive", in which an on-line tagger left profanity-laced messages for 27 of their f riends, an announcement was made in the regularly-scheduled chat. "The Thrive staff wants me to apologize for the weird messages," its Host announced. Then she began her support group for new mothers.

"Does anyone have concerns or topics you want to talk about today," she asked.

"Yeah," one participant answered. "Who's GLAZE?"

The vandal's message had lingered on-line for over 18 hours before AOL corrected the problem.

In the most recent event, AOL removed the seven affected content areas more quickly--but the new text proved just as embarrasing. "K-Mart kickers own Reebok" another bullet announced.

And though Reebok went to great lengths to display an inspirational picture of an NBA baseball player, they probably didn't anticpate that October 11 the picture would have a new caption: an announcement that he's gay.

Other Recent Hacks

The Hub	(3/31/97)
GameWiz	(4/4/97)
GameWiz (Again!)	(4/25/97)
FTP sites of several AOL employees	(4/26/97 through 4/28/97)
The New York Times	(4/29/97)
AOL Glossary	(5/9/97 through 5/23/97)
Stats Store	(5/17/97 through 5/19/97)
Thrive	(6/12/97 through 6/13/97)
Kids Kicks	(6/19/97 through....)
Fantasy Realm	6/23/97 through....)
Spin magazine	(8/10/97)
Digital Cities San Diego	(8/16/97)
Business Week	(9/18/97)
MoneyWhiz	(9/27/97)
Geraldo Rivera	(10/3/97 through 10/4/97)
Jewish Community	(10/11)
ABC KidZine	(10/11)
Steve Case's Update	(10/11)
OnQ / GLCF	(10/11)
Reebok	(10/11)

In addition, hackers hit AOL's Court TV area last November.