It was the magazine cover that broke the Net — or at least New York Magazine’s website.
For at least 10 hours Sunday night and Monday, the site was down amid a crush of traffic and a hacking attempt as people tried to read a story about Bill Cosby’s 35 accusers — all pictured on the cover.
The women describe their incidents to writers Noreen Malone and Amanda Demme. Videos of the women telling their stories also were posted.
New York Magazine tried to reach four Cosby lawyers and spokesmen, but got no replies. Other media outlets failed to elicit comment as well.
A magazine source told The Daily Beast that the website was hit by a distributed denial of service attack which reported:
“A hacker named ThreatKing said he was responsible for the attack, but claimed that it had nothing to do with the cover story. ‘Many stupid people at [sic] New York,’ he told the Daily Dot over Skype. ‘I have not even seen the cover, LOL.’”
One Extraordinary Magazine Cover Could Finally End Bill Cosby’s Public Relations Offensive http://t.co/4zhS7gXnxB
— The Peak Oil Poet (@ThePeakOilPoet) July 27, 2015
I was wondering why I couldn’t get on NYMag’s site last night to read the Cosby story…. http://t.co/zbpzwoV7ON
— Angela Watercutter (@WaterSlicer) July 27, 2015