Employees of Omega World Travel's new search directory, Top9.com, today uncovered an intricate attempt by hackers to seize control of three of Top9's secondary Internet domain names. No damage was done to the Top9.com search directory or other Omega Internet properties.

According to George Fant, Top9.com's Chief Information Officer, the operation spanned three continents and several cities. Hackers used a publicly available domain modification form from the Network Solutions web site to request a transfer of the Internet site to a Japanese address. The hackers then forged an e-mail confirmation notice from Omega agreeing to the transfer. Had the transfer occurred, recovering the web addresses would have presented a significant difficulty to Top9.com, Fant said.

"This was obviously a sophisticated operation," said Fant. "These people used a Japanese company's address and phone number, free e-mail accounts in New York and London, and a domain name server based in Colorado. We are cooperating with all of them in investigating the incident."

"We have again upgraded our security as a result of this," said Top9.com President Dan Bohan. "Top 9 is designed to take the mystery out of Internet searches, but this is not what we had in mind."

Launched in December 1999, Top9.com distinguishes itself by using the most reliable market research data to rank Internet sites by industry category and popularity of use.