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Podcast Perturbations: Feedjacked
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-12-02
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A new form of an old crime happened recently. Podcaster Erik Marcus recently had his RSS feed redirected, hijacked if you will, and the person in question is demanding payment to release the podcast. The problem is the companies who could help Marcus haven't.
While the problem isn't that hard to fix for someone with technical savvy, it also is more than just a bit annoying. Marcus currently runs a website called Vegan.com and hosts the "Erik's Diner" podcasts. His received an interesting note explaining the situation and that for a fee, his podcast feed would be released.
Marcus dropped a note to Colette Vogel:
RSS hijacking is different [from domain hijacking]. Most podcasters/bloggers are not technically savvy, and the technique used for hijacking their feeds doesn't involve swiping passwords or overt illegal methods. Rather, it merely involves finding a target podcast, and creating your own unique URL for it on a website you control. You then point your URL to the RSS feed of the target podcast. Next, you do what it takes to make sure that as new podcast search engines come to market, the page each engine creates for your target podcast points to your URL instead of the podcast creator's official URL.
She had a few practical suggestions to help deter such behavior:
1. You should check all the podcast directories and search engines to be sure that their RSS feeds are pointing to your official URL/RSS feed. (Though, in iTunes and possibly others, this information may not be readily available or obvious.)
2. If you learn of a hijacking, you can write to the hijacker and demand that she or he stop their conduct.
3. You can also write to the podcast directories and search engines to point out the bad actor's conduct.
4. And, of course, you can consult a lawyer about possible claims against the hijacker.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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