[iwar] [fc:FBI/NIPC.Warns.Of.Increased.Hacktivism,.Cyber.Protests]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-18 08:49:55


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:FBI/NIPC.Warns.Of.Increased.Hacktivism,.Cyber.Protests]
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Cyber Protests: The Threat to the U.S. Information Infrastructure;
FBI/NIPC Warns Of Increased Hacktivism, Cyber Protests 
By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes, 10/17/2001
Article at: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171178.html
Full text of report at: http://www.nipc.gov/cyberprotests.pdf

The FBI's computer crime division today warned Americans to expect an
increase in cyber protests and "hacktivism" in the wake of the U.S.
response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 
In its latest alert, the National Infrastructure Protection Center said
while most of the activity will come in the form of Web site defacements
and denial-of-service attacks, systems supporting the nation's most
critical infrastructures are the next most likely targets. 
"Although the cyber protests seen today have already caused limited
damage, the potential for future attacks could bring about large
economic losses as well as potentially severe damage to the national
infrastructure, affecting global markets as well as public safety," the
report warns. 
"The infrastructure has been targeted in other countries in cyber
protests and it is expected that it will eventually be targeted in the
United States as well," the NIPC said. "Cyber protesters certainly will
target infrastructure more often and exploit opportunities to disrupt or
damage it." 
The NIPC warning cites several incidents during the past two years in
which cyber protesters have pooled their resources to attack and disable
U.S. commercial and government Web sites. 
Following the collision of a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. naval
reconnaissance plane in April and early May of this year, pro-Chinese
hacktivists defaced or crashed nearly 100 U.S. sites in a week-long
campaign. Pro-Chinese hackers also were largely responsible for the
Sadmind worm, which infected an estimated 11,000 U.S.-based computer
systems. 
This time last year the world witnessed the first public hacker war
between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian hackers. For the better part of
a month, hacktivists took turns defacing and crashing government Web
sites affiliated with each nation. 
President Bush recently appointed long-time electronic security aide
Richard Clarke to serve as the administration's special advisor for
cyberspace security. Last week, Clarke asked telecommunications
companies to assist in efforts to build Govnet, a secure government
computer network that would have "no risk of outside penetration." 
Yet, for all of the FBI's warnings of impending hacktivist activity in
the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks - this is the second in three weeks -
computer security experts say the expected response from pro-Afghanistan
groups has not yet materialized. 
"Aside from some claims of attacks on Sudanese and Saudi banks, we
haven't seen hardly anything," from either U.S. or pro-Afghan hackers,
said Chris Rouland, director of "X-Force," the research and development
team for Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems. "Frankly, I'm
surprised, because we expected attacks coming from Pakistan, which has a
very known and active hacker population." 
Rouland said one of the reasons for the lack of activity could be that
Afghanistan lacks the type of well-developed computer infrastructure
that would serve as a target or platform for launching attacks on sites
in the United States. 
Rouland added that some U.S. hackers might have reconsidered launching
computer attacks, given strict penalties for hacking encompassed in
anti-terrorism legislation passed by the U.S. House and Senate last
week. 
"With the terrorism bills being passed by Congress, computer hackers now
face life imprisonment," he said. "So it may just be that American
hackers are thinking twice about hacking."

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