Spam attack on Newsbreak Web site: 27,000 porn site links

Apart from libel suits filed by politicians, Newsbreak magazine now has to fend off attacks on its brand of in-depth and investigative journalism on a new front - cyberspace. Last Friday, a flood attack of links to porn sites was waged by still unknown spammers against Newsbreak’s Web site, www.newsbreak.com.ph. Newsbreak online editor Gemma Bagayaua said she found “over 27,000 trackbacks" to porn sites that spammers lodged on the magazine’s Web site. "It took me hours last night to manually delete all of them," she said. Until Tuesday morning, Bagayaua said the Newsbreak staff has no theory as yet about which persons or groups mounted the spam attack. “We don't know who did this. Maybe they wanted to slow down the site but it is possible that they are merely pranksters," she said. As a safety precaution, the trackback feature of the site has been closed and as before, browsers have been asked to log on before posting comments. Newsbreak ceased running its print edition in January 2007, following a decision to go online fullblast the next month. In a letter to readers last January 29, editor in chief Marites Danguilan Vitug said: “Let me give you the bad news and good news in one blow. This is our second-to-the-last hard copy edition. Yes, what you’re holding in your hands, our 179th issue, will soon be part of history." “But we will continue our work online, the platform that is transforming journalism by opening the doors of our profession to citizens all over the world and, at the same time, forming tightly knit communities and audiences in cyberspace," Vitug wrote. Newsbreak is a content partner of GMANews.TV, together with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, BusinessWorld and Summit Media. As well, Newsbreak and PCIJ have joined forces with GMA News & Public Affairs, SMART Communications, Catholic Media Network, and GMA New Media for the May 14, 2007 elections coverage. - GMANews.TV