TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (183)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Register (from Thursday, September 4; link good at time of posting):

The lapsed website of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has been snapped up by an opportunistic German marketeer.

Up until recently nhtcu.org redirected to the official website of Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). SOCA was created in April 2006 with the merger of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).

NHTCU became SOCA's e-crime division, and its former website was redirected to the official SOCA site. But recently this registration was allowed to lapse allowing a German marketeer Uwe Matt of digitalsuccess.biz to buy the domain on 2 August.

. . . .

The content of the site has since been changed to include a link back to the SOCA website, though not an automatic redirection. At no point did the site host malware. The German marketeer who bought the site claims his intentions are strictly honourable.

. . . .

Sophos speculates that Matt may have bought the site simply in order to snap up a domain with a high search engine ranking at a bargain price. The concern is that there is nothing to stop the sale of the domain to someone with more nefarious designs.

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