Hackers post video of hostage on US website
Computer hackers commandeered the website of a California mapping and land-surveying company to post videos of American hostage Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia before he was beheaded by his al-Qaida captors.
The company that runs the website of Silicon Valley Land Survey broke the link to the videos once it learned its servers were being used to disseminate the footage, said Tim Redd, owner of the San Jose land surveying company.
“The usage at the web hosting company went sky-high” as internet users flocked to view the videos, Redd said yesterday. “We’re saddened by the events that provoked all this activity.”
In a video posted on Tuesday on the internet, one of the kidnappers held an assault rifle and shouted demands for the release of al-Qaida prisoners as Johnson sat blindfolded.
Redd said he didn’t know people were using his web site to access images of Johnson until a reporter from German magazine Der Spiegel contacted him. He reported the matter to the FBI.
A spokeswoman for the FBI office in San Francisco said agents were searching for the hackers.
