The world today is growing exponentially towards technology, and while the accompanying benefits are undeniable, risks are always involved. Dana White, President of the UFC, and the UFC website, UFC.com, have felt the full force of these risks. Recently, someone known by the username JoshTheGod, hacked into UFC.com and White’s personal information. But this online war started much earlier this year, in January.
White had advocated in support of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), as much of UFC merchandise gets pirated. As expected, many online hackers retaliated against the president of the UFC. After JoshTheGod targeted and harassed Dana White over various social media sites, he targeted UFC.com shutting down the website. White practically dared them to do it again. He responded to the hackers by stating on Twitter:
“I’m in the fight biz not the website biz!! Might be a big deal to other companies not mine.”
“Lol, I’m not fucking ebay. My website being down doesn’t mean shit”
And “I could give a flying rats ass about UFC. Com.”
Dana White went on to state, “The internet is a place where cowards live.” Shortly after this statement, White’s social security number was posted online. Dana White showed little attention to this as he uttered, “You’re gonna send some pizzas to my house and put my Social Security number out? Who gives a shit? If people really wanted to get your Social Security number, I’m sure they could find it. I’m supposed to bow down to you guys now? I’m going to come after you harder. If you want to fight me, you better pack a f—ing lunch, man. Because we’re gonna go until somebody wins and somebody loses.” White then turned to the FBI as he said he had a plan of attack figured out. As the FBI was already looking into piracy of UFC merchandise, they knew where to look. After UFC.com was hacked, other branches of the government investigated into the crime. This led these departments to pinpoint the hackers responsible, and make arrests.
While it took a good 6 months for the entire case to come to fruition and work itself out, the hacker has finally been identified as 18 year old Mir Islam, and has been subsequently arrested along with other assailants. Islam, who was also behind multiple other websites involving credit card fraud, was the head in the major sting operation. As it turns out, he had been selling credit card information to a government run website while the FBI zoned in on him. White feels as if he had a lot to do with this in opposing the group, standing his ground, and helping the feds zone in an the hacker.
We all know that Dana White is one badass guy, and this simply adds to the list. If someone posted my social security number on the internet, I would be terrified. On the other hand, I am not the head of the number one mixed martial arts promotion in the world. Anyone who decides to mess with Dana White is picking a fight with the wrong guy. He is the epitome of a man who doesn’t care what anyone thinks or feels about him, and does what he wants to do. This is the worst enemy of an online hacker, and any internet predator for that matter. Whether or not Dana White had a large part in the arrest of these criminals, we can at least thank him for challenging these assailants in a way we all wish we could embody.
By: Emily Kapala