WIRE:03/19/2000 12:25:00 ET Hacked again, Mexico's Zedillo denies U.S. sale MEXICO CITY, March 19 (Reuters) - Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo is once again under cyber attack. The President's Office late on Saturday issued a statement denying an announcement posted recently on the Internet by a hacker, claiming Zedillo was selling a property in the United States.

"President Zedillo has not been and is not the owner of any buildings outside the national territory," the office said.

"The apocryphal use of the name of the President of the Republic is condemnable. Taking into consideration this lie, and other lies recently published, especially on the Internet, we would urge people not to be surprised by anything."

The President's Office said the federal Attorney General's Office would investigate the latest cyber campaign of disinformation, which came less than four months before presidential elections in July.

Zedillo and the Presidency's Web page have become a favourite target of hackers.

Last month, an unidentified person sent out to media organisations an alleged speech by Zedillo on the day federal police moved to quash a nine-month strike at Mexico City's National Autonomous University. The e-mail was a fake.

And earlier this month, a hacker managed to gain access to the Presidency's Web page and added false information about who would be replacing Zedillo's former official spokesman, Fernando Lerdo de Tejada.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000319_695.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2000