Federal Government Inadvertently Deleted Ca.Gov

An anonymous reader writes "A Network World reader whose brother works for a California state agency forwarded me an e-mail alert that his brother received: "The Department of Technology Services (DTS) has notified us that the Federal Government inadvertently deleted the CA.GOV domain. As the evening progresses you may experience an impact in your ability to access some Web sites and exchange e-mail. DTS is working with their federal counterparts to restore service as quickly as possible but service may not be restored until tomorrow morning.""

behind the scenes

[cez]

"We don't for sure have the whole picture, but as we understand it, there was some event at the Transportation Authority of Marin Country where their site got hacked," Hanacek told me this afternoon. Traffic was being redirected from that site to one featuring pornography.

A department within the U.S. General Services Administration in Washington oversees and polices the .gov domain.

"The federal government saw this incorrect use of ca.gov and they made a change at a much more global level than probably was necessary and it started taking down all of our ca.gov domain," says Hanacek. "That impacted Web access and e-mail services."

Damn... all this because someone pointed their IP surveillance camera at the nude beach across the street.

just like katrina

[User 956]

The Department of Technology Services (DTS) has notified us that the Federal Government inadvertently deleted the CA.GOV domain.

That's not a mistake, someone just put FEMA's earthquake-recovery plan into action a little bit early.

In related news...

[dws90]

Shortly after this story broke, it was announced that Federal Offices were raided by an Austrian Cyborg who repeatedly shouted "My domain will be back!". The identity of the intruder is currently under investigation.

Ooops.

[conlaw]

At least the Feds don't have to worry about Iraq, Iran, et al. for the next few days. They've probably upset The Terminator and, as we all know, he'll be back.

who really cares, when does ca.mx go live?

[Anonymous Coward]

California isn't still part of the US, is it?

Why wait?

[amccaf1]

I see the federal government isn't waiting around for the San Andreas Fault do to its work... they're cutting California free now!

Why not just use the .ca TLD?

[nebaz]

It's not like anyone else it using it?

Re:just like katrina

[Enlightenment]

That's not recovery. That's acceptance.

What REALLY happened

[antifoidulus]

Dick Cheney didn't want anyone to know that California actually exists(and if people cannot know about it, then their congressmen go away) so he arbitrarily declared it to be top secret.

Re:Sorry

[speedingant]

Then you won't have any problems not believing that the Terminator did it, and he's slowly deleting the entire internet. Think about it in a positive light, go play frisbee or something.

Re:who really cares, when does ca.mx go live?

[Anonymous Coward]

Canada doesn't want anything to do with California either.

Re:Why wait?

[PPH]

After the 'Big One', everything east of the San Andreas fault is going to slide into the Atlantic Ocean.

Re:I sense a disturbance in the Force...

[WillAffleckUW]

Your pitiful Green State shall not stop the Power of the Red Bushie side of the Force!

Soon you shall feel the might of this fully operational Iraq Embassy!

Re:just like katrina

[Seumas]

Were the administrators responsible for this also graduates of Oral Roberts University? They're everywhere else in government . . .

OOPS! I've entered CA.ORG by mistake

[zukinux]

but it kind of looked the same. California, drug addict site, what's the difference?

Re:just like katrina

[ScrewMaster]

Deleting CA.GOV? I didn't realize that FEMA was planning was to actually erase Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD?

[tehSpork]

Very good idea! In fact why don't we hand .org to Oregon while we're at it, surely they will give that TLD much better use than the legions of lackluster sites infesting that TLD.

When you hire the Eraser (1996)

[infonography]

what did you think would happen?

Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was considered. Unfortunately, with the poor state of the American dollar, it would cost just too much for California to register a Canadian domain name.

Re:What REALLY happened

[fm6]

What you just reported is also top secret. That makes you a spy. Please wait for the DHS agents to come and arrest you.

Re:Actually this is a news leak

[emurphy42]

"As for immigration, solving that came at a heavy cost, and I personally regret the loss of California. However, the new Mexifornian economy is strong and El Presidente Schwarzenegger is doing a great job."

Re:Simple to fix?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

ssh: backupserver: Name or service not known
lost connection

Re:who really cares, when does ca.mx go live?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Well, the northern part is, but the southern part never was.

Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD?

[General Wesc]

We need a new mod option: -1 Whoosh! ;-)

Blame Canada

[knuth]

Maybe they got confused and thought Canadians wre infiltrating the U.S. federal government. What if, horrors, they were separatist Freedom [wikipedia.org] Canadians?

Re:Why not just use the .ca TLD?

[patio11]

Plus, the only vowel allowed in Canadian domain names is A, eh?

Re:behind the scenes

[MindStalker]

"We're from the government we're here to help!"