Statement about the failure in the IWF Internet system
Visitors of our website must have noticed an approximately week-long interruption in the operation of www.iwf.net around the turn of 2004 and 2005. We feel we owe you an explanation for this failure which obviously caused some annoyment for those interested in weightlifting and in the IWF and wishing to visit our homepage. Our traditional "Lifter of the Year 2004" voting - published also on the IWF website - seems to have induced Iranian fans of Hossein Reza Zadeh to submit their votes by the hundred, or even by the thousand. At the beginning, it was pleasing news. We were happy to note such a great interest in our Vote. However, ballots – 99 per cent of which turned out to be invalid – started to invade the IWF by fax and e-mail sent at the given mailbox address. To make things worse, unfortunately some hackers or crackers, ill-willing individuals, joined this "game", virtually blocked the website, and kept sending robot-generated, false voting e-mails by the tens of thousands daily (!), including a number of viruses as well. Attacked in such a cruel and nasty manner, the IWF website had to be closed down temporarily. Additionally, the IWF Secretariat’s server and mailbox system had to be totally cleaned and reconstructed. This cost us lots of money and effort – and naturally some time, as well. As you can see: the website is again in full operation. We wish to apologize for any inconvenience caused to our visitors – this was truly against our wish and beyond our control. IWF
