Hackers are suspected of taking down banner advertisements on AtomCoupons.com website today. This is the second hack job of AtomCoupons & extended family of sites in as many days. As reported earlier, their Facebook page was compromised this weekend, & today, their Apache served WordPress sitemap was messed up by the vandals
Both header & footer banners were removed. An ugly black box of categories was inserted in their place
The attack may have been against retail store owners as the OpenX ad zones hosted on AtomCoupons.com served ads for clicks & mortar vendors like Barnes & Noble, CompUSA, CircuitCity, Sees Candies, Sam Ash Music, Universal NBC, WB, FOX, HMV (U.K), & Dick Smith in Australia New Zealand.
Although the potential lost revenue is great, the affiliate site points out that The New York Times Online Store coupon for 10% off remains intact
The brutal attacks came shortly after AC announced the appointment of Dr. Bruce MacApple, A.S, B.A, M.D, PhD as Coupon Chief . AVG & McAfee have saved the site from an increased threat level recently but one rogue Cyber Bully with internal access to confidential customer service records is all it takes to make an online small business owner feel betrayed, violated, & humiliated
An internal investigation will carry on through the week although the company strongly suspects GoDaddy.com from past previous experience
Gay Murdoch