Now here is one dumb cluck:

"Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it???," Taylor wrote to CentOS. "Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma."

Few people would initiate a tech support query like this, but these are dangerous times, and Taylor suspected the worst. (Er, but only the world's most boring hacker would break into a site and then throw up a boilerplate about how to fix the hack.)

[Update a few minutes later]

And here's an amusing follow up:

Taylor declined to respond to this reporter's request for comment but did write to a member of El Reg's marketing team.

I do not follow instructions that show up when a website that I am not familiar with appears on my computer and I do not think anyone with experience would do so either. Once the Centos site appeared on four computers at one site I contacted our web service provider. The web service provider did not know what could cause the problem and had never heard of "CentOS". I then contacted the internet provider's local office and was told that they did nothing to cause the problem. I checked the building's server and found nothing relating to CentOS on the server. I was then left with only the web page email address to contact. I asked for the strange website to be removed because it blocked my City web site and I could not post public information. I only got help after threatening to contact the FBI.

Now I am being flooded with emails from CentOS users that after knowing the answer say the problem was simple. I think this is unjustified and would like for this to stop. Your website should provide useful information and be a credit to the IT world. I do not believe it should be used to incite the users. Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the internet, moron.

There's a saying that goes something like "When you find yourself in a hole, put down the shovel." Looks like Mr Taylor has, instead, perfected a shovel-duplicating machine. Indeed, it's improved the shovels so that they do the digging for him! Methinks his twenty-two years of computer experience ended in, oh, I'd say 1977.

Come on man, picking on Oklahoma is just too easy. What can you do with a state whose motto is "Oklahoma is OK" (should be "At least we're not Alabama")?

Full disclosure: I lived in Oklahoma for 19 years.