New York Magazine Hacked After Publishing Bill Cosby Cover Story

Website down for eight hours after anti-NYC hacker “ThreatKing” takes credit for the disruption

New York magazine Cosby cover Instagram post
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New York Magazine published a powerful cover on Monday featuring 35 Bill Cosby accusers side by side. Unfortunately, digital users haven’t been able to see it.

Shortly after the site posted the cover (pictured above) an anti-NYC hacker took it offline. The hacker, identifying himself “ThreatKing,” told The Daily Dot his hack wasn’t in response to the Cosby cover, but instead his hatred of New York.

“Many stupid people at [sic] New York,” he said. “I have not even seen the cover, LOL.”

As of 9:55 a.m. ET, New York Magazine is down — a huge loss for site editors who were expecting a traffic bump in the initial morning the Cosby cover went up.

In “Bill Cosby: The Women,” NY Magazine shows the accusers lined up side by side on a powerful front cover. Inside the issue is an essay by Noreen Malone, who writes about the lives of Cosby’s alleged victims.

Many other sites are covering the magazine’s cover — including the New York Daily News, who excoriated Cosby as “America’s rapist.”

NY Mag has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment. Company insiders, however, told the Daily Dot they believe the site was taken down by the hacker via a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS).

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