Cyber guerrilla warfare can take a beating. The managers of Dax know something about it, a small but fierce rugby club in the heart of the Landes, a land of fine wines (a stone's throw from Saint Emilion) and players with robust shoulders. In October, the club's website "Allezdax.com", which receives an average of 700 visits a day, was attacked by a horde of 8 daily messages, mostly offensive if not threatening, arriving from Germany. The secret was soon explained.
A commando of computer pirates, realwar.org, forced the certainly not irresistible security of the site, exploding a computer virus that sent the reference server into a tailspin for weeks. “The pirates insulted us in every way – one of the executives explains to Le Monde – even if it took us some time to understand that jargon in German”. Even more to grasp the misunderstanding: the indignados from across the Rhine wanted to hit the index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, but they got the wrong goal.
But they don't take it in Dax: the site was reopened yesterday, just in time to gather the fans in view of the Gascony derby: Mont de Marsan – Dax. And if some pirate wants to sneak up on him, he'll find out what D'Artagnan's heirs are up to who, for now, have limited themselves to having a robust rugby player say on the home page of the site: "In your face, Krauts, le Dax shares are at an all-time high”
