DAWSON CITY The cityofdawson.com discussion forum hosted by Mayor John Steins fell victim to a hacker last weekend. The attack erased all of the discussion threads currently under development on the forum.

While the entrance to the website remains, the front page of the forum was replaced by a black screen with a crude graphic representation of a skull with a sword through its head and an obscenity directed at 'the USA & ISRAIL' (the hacker's spelling).

A further message says 'Hacked by Amoune93', provides an e-mail address, the phrase 'Sorry Admin' and some vaguely Arabic-looking script in the bottom left hand corner.

In a message on the website, Steins indicates the hacker attack occurred last Saturday.

'It's more than a prank because the coward wiped out my database with all the posts and other info.'

Steins has a fairly recent backup of the forum content but is waiting to install it until he can look into the security issues that made the site vulnerable.

He doesn't know just why anyone would go after this site, which is mostly related to Dawson issues, but he does advance his suspicion that someone was offended by one of the recent discussion threads.

'This attack was more than likely prompted by a fairly robust discussion regarding religious issues. It might have been interpreted that there was criticism levied against Islam.'

Steins had been engaged in a debate with several other posters about the utility of religion in general, advancing the thesis promoted by Richard Dawkins in his controversial book The God Delusion.

Exchanges in this discussion had generally been thoughtful and well-mannered, with no particular attention being paid to any specific religious or cultural group.

While Steins favours that explanation he admits there is another that's just as likely.

'Or he's just another pimply-faced, 13-year-old hacker living in his parents' basement with no friends.'

The Whitehorse Discussion Forum, at http://towndog.ca/, which runs from a link on the Dawson Form and has seen no activity since Dec. 27, 2006, was not affected by this cyber vandalism, nor were a number of the other links from the Dawson forum, including Steins' own Mayor's Blog.