Cal Poly website linked to hardcore porn

January 30, 2020

By CCT STAFF

A link on the website for Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business had been taking visitors not to the intended destination, a page for a student group, but rather to hardcore and possibly child pornography. [Tribune]

It appears the link to pornography had been in place for a period of several months. The pornography that the Cal Poly website was linking to included images of sexual penetration and photos of male and female genitalia, as well as of females who appear to be underage.

The discovery was first pointed out on Tuesday by a Reddit user in a post titled, “Porn Currently Hosted on Official Cal Poly Website.” The post detailed how to find the link to the pornography.

Within hours of the Reddit user posting about the improper link, the College of Business website was updated so that it linked to the intended destination, a webpage for the professional student group the Information Systems Association.

The Tribune used a site that archives other websites in order to confirm the College of Business webpage had been linking to pornography.

Internet receipts indicate the link was a mistake stemming from the Information Systems Association failing to pay the domain renewal fee in order to keep its URL address. The URL, cpsloisa.com, was then scooped up by someone else, and linked to site that features pornography.

A new owner registered the domain in Oct. 2019, receipts show.

However, Cal Poly claims the student organization’s website and/or the College of Business webpage was hacked.

University spokesman Matt Lazier said the link from the College of Business website to the Information Systems Association site had been hacked to redirect to pornography. Lazier also said the student organization’s site was not university-maintained, and the old link to it was outdated.

Cal Poly’s information technology team has updated the link to the student group’s new website.