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Man threatens to attack Olympic computers

A would-be hacker was being investigated by police Monday after threatening to attack the internal computer network of the Turin Olympics organizing committee.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A would-be hacker was being investigated by police Monday after threatening to attack the internal computer network of the Turin Olympics organizing committee.

The man -- a technical consultant for the TOROC committee -- illicitly gained access to off-limits sections of the network, police officer Fabiola Silvestri said.

"This consultant -- who is now a former consultant -- said in a very strong way that he could do certain things to the network," TOROC spokesman Giuseppe Gattino said. "Nothing has happened and all the passwords have been disabled."

Officials declined to reveal the consultant's identity, and Gattino said he didn't know the reasons for his threatening behavior.

No charges were immediately filed against the man.

In a separate case, police found that a Turin antiques dealer had acquired five Internet domains that had similar names to Olympic Web sites. If accessed, the domains redirected users to the dealer's Web site, which also carried Olympic logos and other copyrighted material, Silvestri said.

Once he had been told that what he was doing was illegal, the dealer deleted the material and redirected users from his domains to Olympic Web sites, she said.