Home Office site links to Japanese porn

A Home Office web site on RIPA (Regulation of Investigative Powers Act) contained links to a Japanese pornography site, after the Home Office allowed the domain technicaladvisoryboard.org.uk to expire. The unregistered domain was snapped up on the 7th of February 2009 by a person from Japan and directed to a pornographic site in Japan. The problem was discovered by a member of the public who contacted the BBC who in turn contacted the Home Office. Initially, the Home Office said they believed the site had been hacked, but later realised that it had allowed the domain to expire.

Despite assurances by the Home Office that the links had been removed, Graham Cluley at Sophos noted that numerous links in PDF files also contained links to technicaladvisoryboard.org.uk. A brief search showed that OFCOM, the broadcasting regulator in the UK, also has links to the Japanese porn site in its archives. The British government has let domains slip before, allowing the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit's domain to fall into the hands of a third party after the unit was made part of SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency).

The H advises all organisations to consider, when they publicise domains, to ensure they have some policy in place to make sure the domain is not simply allowed to expire, but is re-registered in their name. Old domains like this should then be redirected to a more appropriate, contemporary web site. Otherwise, as happened with this Home Office site, a third party can acquire the domain and damage an organisation's reputation. Changing the links on the existing sites after the problem has occured can't change the previous print and online links which have been created while the re-registered domain was active.

(djwm)