USA Today reported that UFC.com was hacked yesterday as a result of its position on SOPA. However, Dana White did not seem to be concerned with the web site’s security breach.
MMA Mania reports that the group that hacked the site did this in part as retaliation for the shutdown of file sharing web site Megaupload.What may have stirred some controversy is White’s reaction to the web site hacking. White usually responds to UFC issues on twitter with some sort of opinion.. Most recently, he addressed the controversy over Friday night’s Fight of the Night. He’s also wrote in opposition to ESPN’s story on fighter pay. Yet, he did not seemed concerned about the issue Sunday night.
As we wrote previously, the UFC is in the unenviable position of supporting an unpopular law for its target audience. While SOPA and PIPA would help the UFC in its fight against the piracy of its PPVs, its broad reach has many of its fans opposing the legislation.
Payout Perspective:
The hacking of UFC.com should have been addressed by White or the UFC with more concern. To make light, or not care about a security breach on its web site shows a disregard for its property – a property that would be protected by the legislation its been supporting. From a PR perspective, one need not acknowledge the perpetrators of the hacking, but the UFC should ensure its followers that the breach has been addressed. After all, as people have noted, how safe would you feel to make a purchase on UFC.com if you knew that the site had been hacked. We’ll see if there will be additional hackings of the site and/or if the UFC will address the issue.
Machiel Van says
Well, we’ve all known for a long time that the UFC doesn’t care about their website. This just reaffirms it 🙂
mmaguru says
LOL, good one Michiel.
CodeMaster says
The UFC is right to downplay and outright ignore hacking attempts. Hackers tend to have inflated egos which require regular feeding. Privately, the UFC should take it seriously, but publicly–a cavalier attitude which takes the fun out of vandalism with a yawn.
On another note–I have always admired the UFC’s business savvy in many areas, but their website is atrocious. It is poorly designed, terribly slow, much too busy–with a horrible Sherdoglike black background.
I have to believe that the UFC is missing out on beaucoup bucks due to their deficiencies in web design, server power, and advertising acumen.
I don’t even bother going to their website for anything, anytime….and I am a huge UFC fan. As Andrew Lloyd Weber said, ‘form should follow function’, but web-design has long ago become enamored with bells and whistles–but the bells dont ring, and the whistles take too long to load for the modern micro-attention spans.
The UFC website his a goldmine which has been converted into a tin mine.
CodeMaster says
Ooops.
Blush.
I meant to say Frank Lloyd Wright–the famous architect–NOT the composer of pop opera The Phantom of the Opera.
I am guessing it was because they both have Lloyd in their names.