Re: [iwar] The Middle East
From: Fred Cohen
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In-Reply-To: from "Ozair" at Oct 28, 2000 07:28:45 PM
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Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 07:32:12 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: iwar@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [iwar] The Middle East
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Per the message sent by Ozair:
> It seems that you have presented only one side of the picture. It would be
> equitable to point out that unofficial and official sites in Israel are also
> using the same methods mentioned below to hack and attack the sites owned by
> Hezbollah. This cyber war (or as we call it DoS attacks) are being initiated
> by both sides.
You seem to be mistaken - I only copied an existing posting about the
conflict to the list. I was in no way trying to indicate a viewpoint on
it. Indeed I agree that this particular posting was one-sided. It was,
after all, from the US government's point of view.
> Check out the full story at the link below.
> http://www.dawn.com/2000/10/28/int2.htm
> While commenting on the event itself purely from a technical point of view.
> I would say that this is a primitive form of warfare in cyberspace and is
> equivalent to choking a guy with bare hands. In time to come we may see a
> more advanced form of warfare which may actually be more destructive than
> the simple DoS.
It seems to me to more of a harassment / denial of assets type of attack
than something that kills people. Like putting sugar in gas tanks.
Now, for the story you cited - next time, please include it...
FC
Middle East conflict rages in cyberspace: Arabs fighting a multi-pronged war
By Kim Ghattas
BEIRUT: The terms he uses are those of a military battle. 'Attacks',
'counterattacks', 'operations', 'destruction'. But the struggle he is
describing is far removed from the battlefield where some of his
comrades have died.
Ali Ayoub is the Webmaster of Hezbollah, the group whose tactics proved
instrumental in the withdrawal of the Israelis from south Lebanon in May
this year, ending 22 years of occupation.
Now Ayoub says he is trying to stop Israel from ousting Hezbollah from
the world wide web.
For 50 years, the Arab-Israeli conflict has meant wars, skirmishes, and
victims. Adapting to modern times, the struggle has now moved to
cyberspace, as Israel, Lebanon and also Palestinians try to destroy each
other's sites.
This latest cyberwar started on Sep. 29, a day after the beginning of
the current wave of Palestinian-Israeli clashes.
Two of Hezbollah's websites have come under intense pressure with an
increase in hits. This increase could have been explained by a rise in
interest around the world about Hezbollah, considering that Palestinians
and Hezbollah are both linked to the struggle against Israel.
But by Oct. 7, it was clear there was more to it, than plain curiosity,
especially after Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers on the
Israeli-Lebanese border. On Oct. 16, two of Hezbollah's website
crashed under the pressure of what amounted by then to 9 million hits.
"It's not the first time we are attacked this way. When we mounted
armed operations before against Israeli positions in south Lebanon,
there would be an increase of hits on our site which sometimes slowed
them down," said Ayoub.
The culprit this time is a more organized force, he says. He alleges
that Israel set up a website at (http://www.wizel.com) with an
introductory banner reading: 'Attack and destroy Hezbollah.' The site
lists a series of targets, including several Hezbollah websites, that of
their television, al Manar, as well as the websites of the Palestinian
National Authority and the Palestinian religious group, Hamas.
Beside each target is a description of its status - whether it is
working or not - a button to be pressed to destroy the site. By
clicking on the destroy command, the user then activates a script that
will start hitting the targeted website once every second.
In countries with 24-hour Internet cable connection, it is then possible
to open up several Internet windows, click the commands in all the
windows, multiply the reaction endlessly and thereby crash the site.
The other type of attack Hezbollah has grown accustomed to is hate
letters, the language of which is insulting and includes everything from
obscenities to disrespectful references to the mother of the Prophet
Mohammad.
But Ayoub is undaunted. With his team he has already set up several
back up sites and is convinced that by the time the hackers manage to
crash the third target, the first two will be up again. This is
Hezbollah's chosen defence.
"Our counterattack is just to remain on the net, to continue providing
information that is true and that counters their lies," he said.
"We believe in everybody's right to expression and we will not do the
same to their sites," he added.
Hezbollah has, however, complained to the server of attacking site,
preferring to pursue this issue through legal channels.
The cyberwar is heating up for in Lebanon, where there are an estimated
280,000 internet users in a population of 3.5 million, a website called
'Defenders of the Resistance' has been set up. It attacks Israeli
websites in much the same manner as the Israeli websites attack
Hezbollah, ushering cyber-guerrillas into destroying the sites of the
Israeli government, army and www.wizel.com. It didn't take long. The
website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was neutralised for
several hours Monday and the attacks slowed down the Israeli Netvision
ISP.
In Lebanon, the attack Hezbollah came under also affected Inconet, the
server which hosts its website. On Oct. 6, the Inconet Internet
Service Provider (ISP) sent an e-mail to its users saying it was
'targeted by a Denial of Service attack originating from Israel.'
It is unclear yet whether Inconet was the only ISP targeted and
management refused to give details about the attacks, only certifying
that 'they had originated in Israel from five different sites, four of
them official.'
"This is a new way of fighting, and just like they used to attack our
infrastructure with planes, now they might attack our Internet and
technological capacities. We have to be ready," said Mahasen Ajam, from
the Inconet management.
Another, less damaging way, of using the Internet as a tool for struggle
has also been found. With the Across Borders project, funded by Oxfam
Canada, Palestinian refugees in the Burj al Shamali camp in Lebanon can
communicate with Palestinians in the West Bank and in Ramallah, where
the project started a year ago.
At the project's newly opened computer centre, Mariam Saleh, is updating
the project's website, which is a testimony to the history, culture and
sufferings of Palestinians "I wanted to work with this project because I
think it's great that for the first time in 52 years our people are
linked, united almost physically," she says.
In the afternoon, Palestinians in the camp now wait in line to use one
of the 12 computers to chat with those in the occupied territories.
-Dawn/InterPress News Service.
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