Hacker Goes On Spree Against Musicians' Websites

19 July 2014 | 11:33 am | Staff Writer

Well, that's one way to get a response

More Beyonce More Beyonce

An online activist known only as Ethical Dragon has been reportedly hacking the websites of musicians and celebrities he feels have been ignoring his efforts to communicate with him (or her).

In the past 24 hours, the websites of Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Linkin Park, US musician and TV personality Sara Bareilles, and comedian/TV host Joe Rogan have been compromised (apparently twice, in Rogan's case), with their intended content replaced by a black screen, simple logo graphic and white plain text that advertised who had hacked the site, with the express reasoning below: "Don't Ignore My Emails".

Although all the sites have since been restored to their original states, this is the internet, so, yes, there are screenshots.

New Zealand-based Twitter user RoewsTweets managed to capture JT's page before it was restored:

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Meanwhile, it seems Ethical Dragon themselves logged the change to Beyonce's site with defaced-website archive Zone-H (for Timberlake's, too).

Reddit user Arthulia42 apparently stumbled across the hack on Linkin Park's page, while, again, Ethical Dragon themselves pointed people to the fact they had compromised Bareilles and Rogan's sites.

 

 

Although there don't appear to be remaining traces of the attack on Bareilles' site, the angry responses to Ethical Dragon's tweet to the singer-songwriter corroborate their claim.

Meanwhile, the Mixed Martial Arts UnderGround forum community saved the attack on Rogan's site for posterity, while Joe Rogan Experience Podcast co-host and producer Brian Redban all but openly confirmed it when he became the first affected party to offer a public response to the hack.

 

 

We don't know what was even in Ethical Dragon's emails, but what we do know is that if you're on their mailing list, it might not kill you to just fling them a quick note that says, "Thanks for writing".