N.Y. Times Web Page Target of Hackers

The Web page of the New York Times was hacked by a group supporting imprisoned hacker Kevin Mitnick. An editor discovered the hack at 7:50 a.m. Eastern time and the page was taken down to be repaired, said Nancy Nielson, a spokeswoman for the newspaper. The FBI was contacted, she said. In a mishmash of creative spelling and vague threats, a group calling itself HFG, or “Hacking for Girlies,” ridiculed several members of the paper’s staff. It took special interest in reporter John Markoff, who wrote “TakeDown,” a book detailing the search for Mitnick, who was convicted of computer-related fraud charges and whose imprisonment since 1995 has been a cause celebre in the hacker community.