Oklahoma city threatens to call FBI over 'renegade' Linux maker | The Register

Oklahoma city threatens to call FBI over 'renegade' Linux maker | The Register:

The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker Cent OS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server.

This tale kicked off yesterday when Tuttle's city manager Jerry Taylor fired off an angry message to the CentOS staff. [Mr] Taylor had popped onto the city's web site and found the standard Apache server configuration boilerplate that appears with a new web server installation. [Mr] Taylor seemed to confuse this with a potential hack attack on the bustling town's IT infrastructure.

"Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it???," [Mr] Taylor wrote to CentOS. "Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma."

Ye Gods. I don't expect City Managers to be all-knowing, but can we expect them to at least listen and communicate with the people trying to help them? Can we please expect them to act like normal, intelligent humans instead of arrogant accusers?

And should we continue to help them when faced with such belligerence and boorishness?