HATBORO, Pennsylvania, April 30 /PRNewswire/ --

The Sports Network, the nation's premiere real-time sports wire service and content source, was victimized this past week following an orchestrated attack by hackers apparently located in China. They were, as has been reported internationally, seeking retribution and revenge foisted upon their primary target, CNN, for comments made on air concerning the China/Tibet political situation, the Chinese governmental and public response to same.

"The simple fact of the matter is that we were an Internet 'drive-by' victim, an innocent bystander," stated a TSN spokesperson, "because we provide content to CNN/SI and, in launching a well orchestrated and planned attack, this group noted our name and presumed, erroneously, that we were an affiliate, likely owned by CNN."

The Sports Network is the source of real time sports content on a global basis for thousands of clients and its primary concern, according to the company, was for its customer base, placing the responsiveness that would bring its own site back up for its millions of users on a 'secondary priority level.'

"It was a situation right out of Hollywood," indicated Mickey Charles, CEO and President of TSN, "something from 'Matrix Revisited.' As is often said about the PGA Tour, 'These guys are good.' We felt we had every imaginable safeguard in place from a security perspective but, admittedly, we were not prepared for an onslaught of this magnitude ... over 100 hackers or more working in concert at the same time. But, to the credit of our tech team, we marshaled the forces and repelled the invaders over a two day period. It felt, at times, like hand to hand combat with keyboards.

"How good is our security now? As good as it gets. Where do we go for recompense for the damage done other than normal insurance routes? Shall we ask the Chinese government for an apology? We are probably owed one. The irony of all this is that we are not politically positioned nor do we express views on any international crisis such as this, Additionally, we are sending a complete staff to Beijing to cover the Olympics with every intention to do so in the most favorable fashion imaginable."

The Sports Network's response has apparently attracted the attention of many sites world-wide that realize that this could have happened to them and, from reports coming in, all are now busily investigating and improving upon their own security systems. Clients of TSN were back up quickly and www.sportsnetwork.com was completely operative earlier this week, much to the delight and 'welcome back' e-mails from hundreds of its users.

"The Internet is a magnificent informational tool and incredible means of communication but it is fraught with technological potholes, detours and accidents," concluded Mr. Charles. "You just have to drive carefully and protect your passengers as well as yourself."

About The Sports Network

The Sports Network is the nation's foremost international real-time sports wire service furnishing a plethora of content on a 24/7 basis using state-of-the-art technology. TSN's website, www.sportsnetwork.com, contains voluminous proprietary sports news data that is available to its clients as well and includes, but is not limited to, scores, trends, analysis, news, features, statistics, pre and post-game reports, box scores, historical data, and very much more.

Web site: http://www.sportsnetwork.com

Amanda Manero of The Sports Network, +1-215-441-8444, Amanda@sportsnetwork.com