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"AOL's Security Fiction"
"Download this shit."This description directed users to a file named HUB-HACK.GIF. Like the "THRIVE" image, it displayed the message "Not a valid GIF file" in some applications -- and its file name also corresponded to an image which appeared on the "AOL Watch" page.
A racial epithet was scrawled in place of the greeting "Welcome to the Hub" in that instance. ("We were down for half an hour," a Hub staffer conceded to the AOL List.)
This was the first of a long series of attacks. The high-profile venues assaulted even included the New York Times.