HUBERT'S DESK

Evil is around any time, any place

"Das Böse ist immer und überall" sang EAV in their song Ba-Ba Banküberfall - "evil is around any time, any place".
In this case it came in the form of an attack on my website and the hijacking thereof. How could something like that happen?
Well, someone impersonated me and the hosting company fell for it, even though I'd already paid the advance fee for another year (that is, until June 2026!)
It's comparable with someone renting out a flat, taking the rent, but then giving the key to another party, who then changes the lock in order to blackmail me, offering me the opportunity to buy it back from them.
The Austrian public prosecutor's office dropped the case a few days after I filed a complaint, citing its hopelessness. The Austrian justice system doesn't reach that far. The servers were in Canada, and after the theft, the domain was transferred to the US, and the criminal(s) were operating from or via Jeddah.
Months of communication followed with AI-controlled entities in North America responding and reacting in slow motion and even trying to accuse me of having given the keys to the third, criminal party myself. The feeling of being at the mercy of others and the helplessness that came with it in the face of an anonymous administration severely tested my composure. Thanks to Sarah Marchant, my web-savvy colleague, there's now a (free!) happy ending. Hallelujah!!!
Welcome back.

Here's to a wonderful autumn,

Hubert von Goisern