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Police Lose National High-Tech Crime Unit Website

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hate-when-that-happens dept.

Barence writes "The UK police have embarrassingly lost control of the National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) website. PC Pro reports the police have sloppily let the domain registration lapse, and it has now been picked up by an opportunistic German owner. The NHTCU was disbanded two years ago, but sites such as the BBC were still linking to the website as recently as July, making it a prime target for malware writers or phishing attacks."

13 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Can't admit a mistake? by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    SOCA remains entirely unrepentant for the lapse. "SOCA is aware that registration of the domain www.nhtcu.org has lapsed and is taking the necessary steps to remind partners and stakeholders that the NHTCU became SOCA e-crime in April 2006

    I guess admitting that they goofed by letting the domain accidentally lapse would be too much. Instead they have to pretend like the domain is worthless since they changed their name two years ago.

    With that reasoning, I guess AT&T can just let "cingular.com" lapse even though I still type that in every time I go to pay my AT&T wireless bill.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Can't admit a mistake? by ChowRiit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I must admit it's to me surprising that a slashdot user would pay their bill on an old domain like that and trust that AT&T won't do something equally as stupid: after all, such a domain is an even more prime target for phishing and the like. Where's the slashdot cynicism?

    2. Re:Can't admit a mistake? by BountyX · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually...cingular.com lapsed a couple years ago. I bought it. Thank you for your monthly patronage...

      --
      Trying to install linux on my microwave, but keep getting a kernel panic...
    3. Re:Can't admit a mistake? by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually...cingular.com lapsed a couple years ago. I bought it. Thank you for your monthly patronage...

      You're welcome. I've noticed a distinct improvement in service and drop in price since you took over from the real AT&T.

    4. Re:Can't admit a mistake? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh a domain name costs more then that. You may pay $10.00 a year for it. But for a company to keep track of it. Deal with customers who call ATT looking for Cingular and not willing to accecpt Cingular was bought out. Having keeping records of its expiration and renew it at the right time. Having to keep it uptodate with new links recreate configurations for that name when servers change...

      It could cost a total of $50.00 - $1,000 a year for the domain name.

      Just like the $900 toilet seat from the government. It wasn't the cost of the device but the red tape it took to get it approved and logged correctly.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Keep domain names, phone #s, for 5 years by davidwr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you are a business, it pays to keep control of names and phone numbers for 5 years after you stop using them.

    In the case of web sites, a few months with a nice "this web site has changed" message followed by a few months of an automated redirect, followed by several years of no DNS entry.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  3. Why does everything need its own domain name? by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This illustrates why it's not always a good idea for every sub-organization, project and campaign to use its own top-level domain name. If the unit was part of the British government, surely a domain underneath .gov.uk would have been appropriate? Then you need not pay any fees to register it (except perhaps from one part of the government to another) and it can never be taken over by spammers.

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    1. Re:Why does everything need its own domain name? by 2names · · Score: 4, Funny

      Anyone else catch the irony of the parent going off on a DNS rant and then misusing "TLD" in said rant?

      --
      "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  4. What's the big deal? by VdG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since it's my taxes that pay for it, I'm quite happy to see the registration lapse. This is a bit of a non-story and wouldn't be an issue if other people kept their links up-to-date.

    1. Re:What's the big deal? by Ed+Avis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why should you have to keep your links 'up to date'? They chose the domain name and the web address; nobody forced them to pick the one they did. It's the webmaster's responsibility to pick addresses that others can rely on. See Cool URIs don't change.

      After all, what makes more sense: a single webmaster maintaining a logical address which you can always use to get the right information, or thousands of websites all over the net scrambling to 'update' their links at exactly the right moment?

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  5. A Waste by nathan.fulton · · Score: 3, Funny

    The guy who owns it now is running a blog that looks like it was written by a cheap copywriter. I think I'm going to email him about acquiring the domain, the site could be used for some hilarious parodies. Its current use, or using it to commit crime, would be a waste of pure gold comedic content. Anyways, the risk looks minimal. I searched for sites linking to nhtcu.com and there aren't that many -- and BBC has already stripped most of its links.

  6. .gov.uk by Raedwald · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they had used a .gov.uk domain, rather than a TLD, would this have happened?

    --
    Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
  7. Cynicism is powerless against laziness! by bigtallmofo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I must admit it's to me surprising that a slashdot user would pay their bill on an old domain like that and trust that AT&T won't do something equally as stupid

    I'm quite sure that AT&T is just that stupid. However, I'm too lazy to do anything about it.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.