I made a quick stop by chat.cnn.com today to try and get ahold of someone to speak with about this whole incident and make sure there were no misunderstandings. I received the following response from one of their irc admins:
<Candyce> I know who you appear to be
<wankel> oh. well, i can't use the original addresses because they're
still banned, i think. understandable.
<Candyce> Interesting way to apply for a job with CNN
<wankel> hmm. yeah, still permanently banned from 63.209.168.*
<Candyce> anyone can read the banlist
<wankel> hopefully the people in the other half of that class c don't use
your chat system. only 128 of the addresses are mine :)
<Candyce> and...?
<wankel> the point is obviously lost on you, but since that is ip address
space for the level(3) colo at 111 8th avenue in NYC chances are the
remainder of the class c is a part of some isp dialin pool.
<Candyce> "thanks"
<wankel> anyway, you obviously have no interest in speaking about the
incident or my offer to rebutt fox's inaccurate report that you were
hacked. sorry to waste your time.
<Candyce> I don't even know who you are
<wankel> give me an option for authentication. i can't use the address
i did yesterday because it's banned.
<Candyce> Just call the folks at CNN...the operators are standing by
I decided to stick around for the interesting chat session with Miles O'Brian about the space program. It went pretty well until several efnet users, including myself, were mysteriously permabanned from the server in the middle of the discussion. After claiming "I don't even know who you are," that seems like unusual behavior. However, I am sure there was a reason.
If you find yourself banned from chat.cnn.com, you may wish to contact them and ask them why they feel the need to ban CIDR /16 and even larger blocks. Chances are someone at your ISP or the ISP 2 cabinets down in the same colo assumed an evil nickname like "Monica_Lewinsky" and aroused the wrath of their admins.
Included below for your benefit was the current banlist when the last efnet user I know was still able to connect. If you can get a more current one, let me know so I can keep this up to date. These are the channel bans only. We can't seem to see the server banlist, though Candyce assured me we can (see above).
#CNN *!*pirch@12.79.210.*** FoePaw 951106367 #CNN *!*@207.155.233.*** Candyce 951104633 #CNN *!*ames_paul@204.116.99.*** Rory 951102267 #CNN Jimmy711!*gb@208.26.71.*** CarlTSwanson 951101405 #CNN *!*@24.115.47.*** Rory 951101345 #CNN *!*d@205.136.127.*** Rory 951100841 #CNN *!*JAVGUEST@63.197.68.*** Rory 951099439 #CNN *!*@171.208.154.*** Philo 951098651 #CNN tuans!*tuans@128.125.104.*** CarlTSwanson 951098525 #CNN *!*@63.236.135.*** Philo 951098518 #CNN *!*@204.134.205.68 Philo 951098443 #CNN mafia*!*@* Philo 951098221 #CNN *!*@24.114.145.*** LaDiva 951098213 #CNN *!*@24.65.40.*** LaDiva 951098202 #CNN MAFIABOY15!*AFIABOY15@24.65.40.*** Porkrind 951098201 #CNN *!*damyoshid@24.113.124.*** LaDiva 951097236 #CNN *!*aslsd@212.174.18.*** LaDiva 951097210 #CNN *!*lore@200.223.80.*** JeffD 951072146 #CNN *!*JAVGUEST@63.24.114.*** JeffD 951067589 #CNN *!*@212.119.66.* ChanServ 951032834 #CNN *!*@216.40.138.*** Zank 951024789 #CNN *!*@209.43.25.*** Zank 951024623 #CNN *!*crayz@24.24.44.*** JeffD 951014474 #auditorium *!*@216.214.188.*** Haley 950899124 #auditorium *!*@129.240.142.*** Candyce 950899014 #auditorium *!*@20.4.93.*** Candyce 950898188 #auditorium *!*@195.163.75.*** Haley 950896449 #auditorium *!*@207.212.230.* Sunny1 950810332 #auditorium *!*@212.127.145.* Sunny1 950729228 #auditorium *!*@207.172.184.* Sunny1 950729034 #auditorium *!*@216.223.213.* Candyce 950641610 #auditorium *!*@209.51.163.* Candyce 950641603 #auditorium *!*jav*@204.213.188.* ChanServ 950557275 #auditorium *!*@208.184.75.* JoeCNN 950556236 #auditorium !**@205.152.191.* JoeCNN 950555985
Later on, we caught a glimpse of some more chat about the prank. The way my name is censored makes me think it is probably an autoban word at this point. Ouch. Never inteneded to cause this much trouble.
<CarlTSwanson> gnome... C2 I am going to say this ONE TIME.... the +chat WAS NOT HACKED,,, I made a mistake, nothing more... voiced someone +who should not have been voiced... so shoot me <Ezra> CarlTSwanson, is that what happened? ABC news says it was a +hacker. <CarlTSwanson> Ezra, ABC news can go pound sand... <xdm> I see ABC refering to w*n*el as a "cyber prankster"