www.eon8.com
http://eon8theinvestigation.ytmnd.com- The Film
Cyber nutters worrying about Eon8

This is all pretty freaky. Seriously watch the investigation and check out the site, the last link is not so important.

Basically for those with little time, a mysterious and very secure (IE cannot be hacked or investigated) website has appeared on the internet with a countdown timer. But noone knows what the timer is counting down to.

The name alludes to many things. Firstly, Eon is deemed to refer a Aeon, a measure of time, which basically means a long period of time or an age. Aeon 8 is allegedly (not alleged by the film but by myths, legends, prophecies etc) , the age in which the world will end. Also, The timer counts down to 5/30/06 With the time being at 23:00/11:00 PM (That is using the timezone that the server is located in.) 5/30/06 is also the 72nd 'anniversary' of the Night of Long Knives when Hitler murdered all of his political competition. It is speculated that this is significant.

Also check out www.eon5.com which is most likely unrelated but is quite chilling. It's just a picture.

Seriously, just watch the film.

Now, I don't really believe that it's a genuine act of cyberterrorism, and I'm not exactly panicking. It's probably a very clever hoax and I reckon the fact that the site has been investigated by the US Government and Military (allegedly) is either set up or just a routine check by cyber intelligence experts. I'm not really panicking, don't get me wrong. But it's quite interesting

15 hours to go.

You know what would amuse me to no end? When the timer runs out, it turns into the most hyped-up advertizement in ages.

EDIT: I can now safely assure you all that this is, in one form or another, a hoax. The "approved referrer" is no referrer at all. You're approved if you completely mask your IP. As far as I know, the only way for that to occur is for the list of approved referrers to be an empty set. Furthermore, even when "approved," you get a link that kicks you back to the front page, just like you do when you're turned away.

Yeah most people are deciding that it's probably a CS clan or something

Anyway the film keeps getting updated and continues to do so. And the people investigating Eon8 have informed CNN

You mean 6/30/06?

I can't get to the site.

It sounds really stupid though.

I r teh scared!

Its probably just nothing, like Y2K.

I hope it's an advertisement, that would be neat.

And for being so secretive, I'm wondering why their countdown doesn't work on my computer (a mac). I just see..

"NaNd:NaNh:NaNm:NaNs"

Because it can stand your Awesomeness, Veonira.

...I think either its my dad's internet connect or its the site itself, but I'm having issues with the eon8.com site..

I guess the computer likes eon8.org...anyway, I really want to know who's running this eon8.(com,org, net) site...

Well, they're on a Dallas ISP (although there's no guarantee that the site maintainers are actually from Texas), and went through the extra trouble and cost to have their names protected by a whois security firm.

Where's my bro when you need him

Eh, there's still a nice IP trail on the site. Thankee for tracking! Come again!

{eon8} Complete
As of July 1st, 2006, the E8 Project has completed.
The purpose of this project was to determine the reactions of the internet public to lack of information.
History
The domain eon8.com was chosen, as it is short, easily remembered, and eon9 was already registered.
It was originally posted on www.msfn.org, but was promptly removed as 'spam'. It was enough time for it to be copied to other forums throughout December 2005.
Results
We were amazed to discover that the site was instantly linked with terrorism, simply for the fact that it seems mysterious. Evil was the number one first impression people had of the site, in spite of the fact that there are no threats on the site. The only thing Eon 8 says is "We don't want you here". Nothing else.
Other less disappointing opinions were social experimentation (which was correct), James Bond movie viral marketing, and promotions for video games.
For many people, being faced with a countdown timer was an instant reason to try to shut down or hack the site. This is a worrying reaction, that if someone doesn't understand something they must destroy it. As a result, the servers have been hit quite hard these last few days, but luckily 99% of the 'hackers' could easily be described as 'l4me n00bs'.
Another worrying example of paranoia was how quickly people would jump to conclusions, such as telephoning the registered owner of a dog seen in a photograph on a server that hosts a page that links to eon8.
Surprises
The folks at Unfiction.com were the most resourceful and inventive, they successfully managed to decrypt several of the 'codes' on the site, forcing them to be re-encrypted using more secure methods.
FAQ
What about eon5.com?
Nothing to do with us. Pure coincidence, but worked in our favor.

What about the 8th eon being the end of the world?
We picked Eon 8 because Eon 9 was already taken. We didn't know about the significance of this. Eon is a cool sounding word!

Why July 1st?
We didn't know how long it would take to get the word out using our subtle promotion methods. We allowed over 6 months.

What do the codes on the site mean?
They're mostly randomly generated integers encrypted with md5, but with certain letters removed and replaced. The Logs page is simply based on the current timestamp, encrypted and modified. You can't decrypt them, they really are random numbers.

What is the Deployment Map?
They're dots placed over major cities and several random locations, it was done mostly from memory. The random gif filename is an added touch to force a slight delay on loading, which looks more impressive in Internet Explorer, but not as much in Firefox.

What's the password?
There isn't one. If you did somehow manage to get in, you'd see an empty folder with a single text file that says "This is a decoy folder. Please connect to the internal secure network".

Can I see your website statistics?
Yes, click here.

Are you anything to do with Scientology?
Did you see anything talking about a Free Personality Test or Xenu? Use your brain.

Who are you, really?
The most I can tell you is I am a 23 year old web designer from Florida named Mike. I can't narrow it down anymore than that. When I say 'we', I really mean 'me'.
Conclusions
People take things too seriously and panic over the most trivial things. But at the same time there are many people out there who think things through without jumping to conclusions. You can't let pointless speculation rule your lives and force you to live in fear.
In Closing
Thanks to everyone who kept things interesting, especially to the folks at unfiction. Sorry there is no ARG for you to play, but at least you had fun while it lasted.


Click here for one Final Message from Eon 8

BE HAPPY
THE END
Sincerely, x21b


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yep. When the countdown ended they put that page up. Really interesting experiment - someone give that man a medal.

Look at the kitty.

Clever clever people, I have much respect for them. Get past the fact that it was an anticlimax and you get a fascinating insight into human nature in this modern era. The first reaction to the unknown was fear. The second, destruction.

I think it draws parallels with what will turn out to be the end of our world one day.

Modern era? Humans always feared the unknown, and acted aggressively towards what they feared. Nothing modern in that, the humankind was always so petty. Sad - but by overcoming such instinctive reactions, we are growing into more tolerant people, with a higher moral ground and blah blah, you know the drill (not that I disagree).

As for me, I thought it would be some kind of a dumb commercial.

I like how the "final message" plays "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"

Just what I expected it to be - nothing.

One day, aliens will be preparing to invade Earth and will be synchronising their attack hijacking our technology (like in Independence Day, just using Internet instead radio waves). But everyone will dismiss that saying "Just another prank".

Congratulations! You fell for it.