
Due to professional hacking, this website has been removed from the web - jasonhansel
http://kaiserpapers.org/
======
jcrawfordor
Unfortunately, comments like "Content that many people found useful, including
medical professionals was found to be reworded and that in itself is
dangerous." make me worry that one or more of the site's operators may not be
on an entirely even keel.

Kaiser is not without its controversies, but to believe that they are
conspiring with Joe Biden to have the government disrupt this static website
that largely just links to news reports and government record is... a bit of a
stretch.

------
primitivesuave
Am I missing something, or are they actually unable to reliably host a static
site? There are so many viable options (Netlify, Github pages, even the
classic wordpress.com). I highly doubt the claim of professional hacker -
based on the grammar in their final note and the haphazard arrangement of
information in the archived site, I'd speculate they had a gaping hole
somewhere and never bothered to fix it.

~~~
guitarbill
"Apache Server at kaiserpapers.org Port 443", so yeah, ~~for some reason
they've decided to run their own Apache server~~ edit: this is likely
incorrect, see child comment. There's nothing wrong with Apache per se, but it
is a complex piece of software that requires maintenance. Of course, it's
complete overkill for a static site, and asking for trouble.

~~~
detaro
It's shared hosting, going by the IP address, DNS server (hostgator), and the
fact that there's tons of domains running on that IP.

~~~
guitarbill
Ah fair enough. I didn't want to do too much digging lest they do get someone
to investigate

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lalaland1125
The story presented by this website simply makes no sense. There is literally
no way that anyone can "hack" a decently setup static site especially if you
are being advised by "professional security firm".

My guess is that either:

A. The people hosting the site are simply doing this for attention and never
actually got hacked.

B. They did not actually consult a "professional security firm" and instead
are hosting the site in a very silly way and probably got hacked randomly by a
script kiddie.

------
rgovostes
This defies belief. In a meeting between a former Vice President and
executives of an $80B/yr health care company, they authorized hacking of a
20-year-old, little-known site to reword unfavorable articles?

The authors clearly feel that they have been wronged by KP and have spent
decades fuming online trying to "expose" the organization, and failing to have
done so, have fabricated an even bigger conspiracy involving unstoppable
hackers and election tampering to silence them.

If indeed they have a "professional security firm," they have almost certainly
told them they can't help anymore to get an irritating client to go away.

------
revvx
For those curious about how the website looked before the removal, here's a
Web Archive link:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20181122020124/https://kaiserpape...](http://web.archive.org/web/20181122020124/https://kaiserpapers.org/)

~~~
skunkworker
Is this just a static site? Or did it have known attack vectors like a
insecure Wordpress plugin. Unfortunately this is giving me more questions than
answers the longer I try to understand if this ‘hacking’ is just defacement or
something more nefarious.

~~~
revvx
After checking the archived content on [1], as posted by Updtrenda, it seems
that it was just a bunch of HTML files indeed.

If this is really the case, I don't see why they can't just put it on a
Torrent and distribute it. Or even host a mirror on S3 or Netlify.

[1]
[http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://kaiserpapers.org/*](http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://kaiserpapers.org/*)

------
jasonhansel
A copy of the content, just in case the page gets HN'd, is below. The email
addresses have been removed so that spambots don't pick them up.

\------

KaiserPapers.org

In Copyright Since September 11, 2000 This web site is in no manner affiliated
with any Kaiser entity and the for profit Permanente

May 13, 2019

Due to Professional hacking/vandalism of the Kaiser Papers and related sites
which began when Kaiser Permanente representatives met with Joe Biden a few
days ago and our professional security firm has been unable to handle this
problem it has been decided that the web site and related sites should be
removed from the web, at least for the time being. We apologize for the
inconvenience.

A similar problem took place during the last Presidential Campaign. It became
a daily problem to repair the site at that time. Content that many people
found useful, including medical professionals was found to be reworded and
that in itself is dangerous. To avoid such problems this year, 2019, we are
simply removing all content.

We are not a political website nor organization, so whatever games, for
whatever contracts anyone wants to secure with the Federal Government
determined by the outcome of the election is something that we can all just
sit back and watch. The government itself appears to be divided in opinion
regarding medical issues involving Kaiser. Consequently, as before, even
though we were then told by law enforcement who was doing the hacking, we
can't count on assistance from our government to stop it.

If you need assistance or suggestions pertaining to navigating the Kaiser
system here are three email contacts you may write to:

Vickie Travis

Hillarie Levy

Michele Monserett Ramos

------
antoncohen
Paranoid conspiracy theorists run a paranoid conspiracy website, and are
paranoid that a government is conspiring to hack their website.

Also, it is (was) static HTML. It is a bit hard to believe a static HTML site
has been hacked, and professional security firm can't prevent it from being
hacked.

~~~
bastawhiz
I don't find it hard to believe that it was hacked (if its software hasn't
been updated in a decade or two, how many obvious exploits might be present?).
It's hard to believe, however, that they had a true "professional" security
firm employed, especially considering the site they were running.

------
rodmena
So they simply say that they can not put their static content on github?
Awesome. The security firm that handles their issues must be evaporated from
planet.

------
chuckgreenman
If you're a bit out of the loop like me, here's some stuff that I've looked up
trying to understand.

Kaiserpapers.org appears to be a compilation of articles criticising Kaiser
Permanente. The note read in that light makes it seem like they feel Kaiser
Permanente has hacked them.

Had to do some research because I don't live in one of the areas that they
serve but Kaiser seems to be a combination of a hospital network and an
insurance company with doctors paid salaries rather than per-service.

Seems like a good idea, not sure what criticisms are about, maybe someone who
is more familiar with it can shed some light on the situation

------
Uptrenda
Damn the wayback machine has a terrible UX (no offence intended, its still
profoundly useful. Could be easier to use though... Make it clear where other
content is and possibly indicate how many links on a page are broken. IDK)

Here's apparently how you see a list of other resources that it archived from
the original site:
[http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://kaiserpapers.org/*](http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://kaiserpapers.org/*)

------
jasonhansel
My question is: couldn't their "security firm" just make this a static site
hosted on (say) S3?

------
wheelerwj
why is this site seemingly being targeted?

~~~
whenchamenia
It is devoted to attacking a large shady medical insurance and care company. I
have no doubt this ticked off an exec or investor who made this happen. I hope
this rallies the streisand effect.

~~~
nerdponx
It won't. Mainstream news won't pick up the story. It will be buried as a
curiosity.

------
IIAOPSW
>The government itself appears to be divided in opinion regarding medical
issues involving Kaiser. Consequently, as before, even though we were then
told by law enforcement who was doing the hacking, we can't count on
assistance from our government to stop it.

1\. That's fucking terrifying.

2\. Russia?

3\. Why is this website/foundation the target of politically motivated
hacking? I'm ootl.

