One Saturday afternoon, hackers took over an AOL shopping area. They left a message protesting the recent shut-down of their chat room, suggesting the defacing of AOL's content was an act of retaliation.

Did AOL's crack security team swing into action? No. In fact, the hacked screen remained in place throughout the weekend, and on into Monday afternoon. In the previous six weeks, hackers had illustrated the lack of security over a variety of other AOL content areas -- The New York Times, The Hub, GameWiz, and the FTP sites of several AOL employees.

Adopting a black-is-white approach to damage control, AOL placed a message on their exit screen that night touting the security of their shopping areas.

Tell that to the hackers who hit the STATS Store.