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Tech issues plague 'New York' mag's website after Cosby cover

Lori Grisham
USA TODAY Network
35 women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault posed for the most recent cover of New York magazine.

New York magazine's website experienced technical difficulties Monday in what appears to be a hacker attack.

The site went down hours after publishing a story Sunday evening featuring 35 women who accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault.

The site, which has been sporadically unavailable throughout the day Monday, was back up as of 2:30 p.m. EDT.

A hacker by the name ThreatKing claimed responsibility for the downed site on Twitter using the handle @Vikingdom2016.

The hacker reportedly told the online magazine The Daily Dot that the attack has nothing to do with the Cosby story.

“I have not even seen the cover,” he said in a Skype chat with the magazine. ThreatKing said he targeted NYmag.com because he dislikes New York City, according to the report.

New York magazine declined to comment on the issue to USA TODAY Network, but tweeted updates from @nymag saying they were working to get the site back up.

The magazine republished the Cosby story on Tumblr so people could read it while the site was down and also shared videos via Instagram.

The magazine photographed and interviewed all 35 women for the issue, which was released on NYmag.com Sunday. In the cover story, many of the women share similar stories of being young actresses or mentees of Cosby who were drugged by the actor and sexually assaulted. Some didn't speak out until now for fear that no one would believe them.

"I could have walked down any street of Manhattan at any time and said, 'I'm being raped and drugged by Bill Cosby,' but who the hell would have believed me? Nobody, nobody," Barbara Bowman, who accused Cosby of assaulting her from 1985 to 1987, said in an interview for the cover story.

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