Return-Path: <sentto-279987-2463-1001631467-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:59:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 1416 invoked by uid 510); 27 Sep 2001 22:58:07 -0000 Received: from n29.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.79) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 22:58:07 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-2463-1001631467-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.53] by b05.egroups.com with NNFMP; 27 Sep 2001 22:57:48 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 27 Sep 2001 22:57:47 -0000 Received: (qmail 94162 invoked from network); 27 Sep 2001 22:57:46 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by 10.1.4.53 with QMQP; 27 Sep 2001 22:57:46 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 22:57:46 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id PAA22982 for iwar@onelist.com; Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:57:46 -0700 Message-Id: <200109272257.PAA22982@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:57:46 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Vigilantes.taking.vengeance.on.Mideast.Internet.sites] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Vigilantes taking vengeance on Mideast Internet sites By Kathryn A. Wolfe, Houston Chronicle, 9/27/2001 <a href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1062216">http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1062216> WASHINGTON -- As America deals with a rash of physical attacks aimed at people of Middle Eastern descent, a quieter wave of ethnic vigilantism is swelling in cyberspace. Some computer hackers, incensed by the recent terrorist attacks in New York and near Washington, have aimed their singular skills at a host of Middle Eastern Web sites, altering and disabling them in the name of patriotism. The most popular targets seem to be those linked to the Taliban and the governments of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, all of which have had Web sites either temporarily disabled or defaced recently. In many cases, hackers placed a mock "wanted" poster of Osama bin Laden or a graphic of bin Laden with guns pointed at his head onto some Middle Eastern Web sites. Others have been rendered unusable in what is known as a "denial of service" attack -- where hackers overload a Web site with so much information that it shuts down. The Web site of Afghanistan's Presidential Palace was not functioning Tuesday. Visitors instead saw a letter from the webmaster saying the Afghani government is not affiliated with the Taliban. "This Web site does not belong to terrorist Taliban and Usama bin Laden regime," the statement said, explaining that the Web site had been hacked by "ignorant" visitors and will take days to fix. The Iranian and Afghani Ministry of the Interior's Web sites as well as another site that contained pro-Taliban writings also were not responding Tuesday, likely the result of a denial of service attack. The recent spate of cyber-vigilantism has taken other forms, including a convicted hacker-turned-security expert who offered his cadre of hackers to any government that wants to use them to penetrate Islamic fundamentalist virtual networks. Another hacker obtained the e-mail addresses of people who subscribed to an Islamic e-mail list, then posted the addresses to a site and invited readers to take their revenge. Computer security experts say it is difficult to know how many hacking attempts have been related to the Sept. 11 attacks because hacking is so prevalent on the Internet. But they agree that there has been a spike in related cyber-vigilantism. "It happens 100 times a day, the fact that it happened to them instead of somebody else just means different people got (hit)," said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a computer security research organization. While difficult to isolate, the threat of Web sites being compromised by hackers has been great enough to cause the FBI to issue two warnings about "threatened vigilante hacking activity against organizations associated with" the attacks. "Those individuals who believe they are doing a service to this nation by engaging in acts of vigilantism should know that they are actually doing a disservice to the country," the FBI said in its statement. It is not the first time the Internet has been used maliciously to further a political cause, in a phenomena that is increasingly being called "hacktivism" -- where hackers ostensibly take up the mantle of a political cause. Some of the most widespread abuses came a few years ago when some hackers declared an "e-jihad" or "hacker holy war" over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proceeded to lob virtual grenades at Internet sites. Dorothy Denning, a computer science professor at Georgetown University who has studied hacktivism, said these types of politically-motivated attacks have cropped up more as the Internet has grown. "There's been a lot of this going on. Now where there is a conflict of some type, it's likely to show up in cyberspace," Denning said. "It's mostly the younger people, and it's a way for them to participate in the global conflict in a way where their voices will be heard." Computer users may be affected by the wave of cyber-vigilantism through the possibility of picking up a virus or worm, Denning said. The most recent Internet security alarm has been the "Nimda" worm, which slowed Internet use considerably last week. Though the FBI has said the worm was not created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, some security experts disagree because of its timing. It first appeared at 8:50 a.m. on Sept. 18, exactly one week after the attack on the World Trade Center. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:51 PDT