[iwar] [fc:Hackers.Claim.They.Hacked.Arab.Banks.-.But.Are.They.Lying?]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-16 09:27:34


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Hackers.Claim.They.Hacked.Arab.Banks.-.But.Are.They.Lying?]
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Hackers Claim They Hacked Arab Banks - But Are They Lying? 
ABCNEWS.com, 10/16/2001
<a href="http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?threadid=120107">http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?threadid=120107>

A group of self-proclaimed hackers led by a wealthy and flamboyant
German businessman says it is taking a vigilante approach to the war on
terrorism by bringing together hackers worldwide to track down terrorist
finances and resources online. 
They claim to have 34 people in 10 countries who have hacked the
computer systems of banks they say may be linked to accused terrorist
Osama bin Laden. They also say they've shared information with the FBI. 
But the FBI refuses to comment, the banks have not noted any disruption
of their services, and other hackers say the team is really just a bunch
of self-promoters. 
Whether they've done any damage at all -- or whether they even exist --
they have touched off a debate online about the propriety of what the
group's leader, Kim Schmitz, says it is trying to do. 
YIHAT's Their Name 
The group, which calls itself YIHAT, for Young Intelligent Hackers
Against Terror, says that last week a team of U.K.-based members gained
access to accounts at the Sudanese AlShamal Islamic Bank worth as much
as $50 million belonging to bin Laden and the al Qaeda organization he
heads. Schmitz said no harm was done to the accounts and said the group
passed on the information to the FBI. 
Tuesday, the group claimed to have hacked the Arab National Bank in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but said that no information on suspected
terrorists had been found. A hacker calling himself Splices told
ABCNEWS.com that he gained access to the bank's records and "had access
to anything we wanted: corporate profiles, stock deals, financial
statements, customer bank accounts." 
Splices provided ABCNEWS.com with copies of some of those files, which
appeared to contain financial information associated with Arabic names,
but could not be further verified as belonging to actual customers or
even the bank. 
When asked why he targeted the Arab National Bank, Splices replied, "It
has been confirmed that terrorists had done banking there in the past.
We don't just choose targets at random." 
Splices would not say whether the names on any of the accounts appear on
the recently released list of 22 terrorists most wanted by the FBI, but
he did say the information he found had been turned over to U.S. law
enforcement. 
Neither bank is on a U.S. list of 27 groups whose assets have been
frozen for alleged links to bin Laden. 
An FBI spokesman refused to comment on whether it had received
information from YIHAT, but did say the FBI would not condone efforts to
acquire information related to terrorism that fall outside the law. 
Attempts to reach AlShamal Islamic Bank's in Khartoum via phone and
e-mail were unsuccessful. Its Web site contained no information on any
hacks. 
A spokesperson for the Arab National Bank said it was unaware of any
computer intrusion. 
Hacker-Turned-Businessman 
The founder of YIHAT, Schmitz, is a 27-year-old former hacker turned
high-tech tycoon who lives in Munich, Germany. He said he started the
group as a result of receiving scores of leads from people around the
world who responded to his posting of a $10 million reward for
information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden. 
He says he intends to pay the reward largely from his personal fortune
that is estimated to be about $200 million. 
He also said the loss of two associates who worked in the World Trade
Center affected him personally. 
"We wanted to do something," Schmitz said. "The FBI is very busy working
on their own leads. We decided to build a contact network that will be
useful in the fight against terrorism." 
The name YIHAT is meant to be a play on the Arabic term jihad , meaning
holy war, Schmitz says. "If they're calling for a jihad against our
modern civilization, then we want to do the same, to react with a fiber
war against this holy war," he said. 
The group's Web site, launched Sunday as the first U.S. and British
attacks against Afghanistan were getting under way, can be found at
kill.net, a name Schmitz says was chosen because it is easy to remember,
and because "we are focused on killing the money sources of terrorist
organizations." 
Hacker sites on the Web brimmed with admiration and disgust for the
professed hacks. 
"This is just a sad attempt to get a bunch of hackers together and act
stupid," one message said. 
"I don't like the idea of a millionaire starting his own private war,"
said another. 
Skepticism was strong enough, in fact, that the kill.net site was itself
hacked Wednesday night by a hacker calling himself "Fluffi Bunni" who
defaced the site by posting a picture of Osama bin Laden and a doctored
version of YIHAT's logo that read "Young Idiotic HaxOrz and Terrorists." 
FBI Warned of Potential Damage 
Concerns about the potential damage caused by vigilante hacker groups
has been widespread since the Sept. 11 attacks. The FBI issued warnings
last month about the appearance of such groups, suggesting there might
be "significant collateral damage" if they attack sites purported to be
associated with Islamic or terrorist groups by causing damage across a
server or network. 
Commenting on the alleged attack on AlShamal Islamic Bank, David Endler,
practice manager at iDefense, a security intelligence company said:
"What legitimate customers, whose bank accounts were not related to
terrorism, might have been compromised as well? No one knows." 
Schmitz says that YIHAT has issued a set of rules he says will prevent
the unlawful damage to information. "Our rules are very clear. We don't
want any sort of manipulation of data. We're not trying to harm." 
According to U.S. law, gaining unauthorized access to computerized
financial systems is illegal. Hackers who are caught can be charged with
a felony and, if convicted, sentenced to up to five years in prison. 
Copyright 2001 ABCNEWS.com. All rights reserved.

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