[iwar] [fc:Experts:.Insiders.Biggest.Cyberterror.Threat]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-15 08:21:51
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 08:21:51 -0800 (PST)
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Internet could be shut down by hackers, warn experts

Reuters, 11/15/2001
<a href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2099170,00.html">http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2099170,00.html>

Researchers at the ICANN security conference warn that the Internet is
still vulnerable to attack 
It would not take much for a malicious hacker to shut down the Internet,
researchers at a meeting of the body that oversees Web address
allocation have warned. 
An attack designed to flood the Web's master directory servers with
traffic "is capable of bringing down the Internet", Paul Vixie, a
speaker at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) annual meeting, told Reuters on Wednesday. 
After the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, non-profit
corporation ICANN pushed other agenda items aside to concentrate the
discussion on ways to keep the Internet safe. 
Adding to the impetus for the change in focus were the Code Red and
Nimda internet worms, which cast more attention on network security
issues. 
Researchers said they were worried that malicious hackers could attack
the 13 "root" servers that direct computers to Web addresses, or domain
names, or the 10 top-level domain servers, all of which serve as a kind
of directory for the Internet. 
To mount a so-called denial-of-service attack a malicious hacker would
break into numerous PCs or Web servers and instruct them to send so much
traffic to a target server that it would overload it, preventing people
from accessing the Web. Such attacks are attempted all the time but
usually on single Web sites and not on a scale that seriously interferes
with overall internet traffic, experts said. 
Another trouble spot is security at registrars, the companies which sell
domain names, or Web addresses, experts said. 
"Registrars are the weakest link," Steven Bellovin, an AT&amp;T fellow, said
during his presentation. "If the registrar is hacked and the database
tampered with, (it would be difficult for a domain name owner to prove
ownership of a domain)." 
Researchers would also like to prevent attacks that redirect Web traffic
to a dummy site and email to someone other than the intended recipient,
said Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of the Domain Name System protocol
and chairman of Nominum, which handles directory services for
registrars. 
"The Internet is very fragile," said Vixie, who was one of the
developers of the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) software that
translates Web server names into numerical Internet Protocol addresses.
"It would be very easy for an angry teenager with a $300 (Ł208) computer
to create almost unlimited pain for anyone on the Internet and not get
caught. We've got to have attention focused on this." 
At the sessions engineers said they have taken steps to secure the
computers that run the Internet. They have contingency plans for outages
at the root servers -- the 13 master domain name computers around the
world -- and are keeping them safe from unauthorised physical access,
said Lars-Johan Liman, a senior systems specialist at Autonomica AB in
Stockholm. 
The operators of the root server in Japan also are stepping up security
according to Kenji Kosaka, a senior vice minister at the posts and
telecommunications ministry. 
"I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that ICANN decided to hold a
meeting focused on the security of the Internet only after the tragic
events of September 11," Kosaka said during his keynote speech. 
There was also scrutiny of security at VeriSign, the sole overseer of
the .com, .net and .org master databases and provider of authentication
technology to the root servers and most other registries of top-level
domains. 
"I am deeply troubled by the complacency of the ICANN leadership on the
subject of security," Paul-Jean Jouve, president of Los Angeles-based
network security company Brinx, wrote in a letter to ICANN directors.
"It took worldwide fears to stimulate the dialogue on this issue." 
While some criticised ICANN for taking so long to make security a
priority, others said the subject should be left to engineers and not
bureaucrats. 
Switching the focus to security is "opportunistic", Rodney Joffe,
chairman and chief technical officer at Ultra DNS, which provides
Internet directory services to companies, told Reuters. 
"It's relevant in general, but I don't think ICANN needs to focus on
it," Joffe said. "Security is, after all, a technical issue, not an
administrative one." 
ICANN chairman Vint Cerf dismissed the concerns, saying board members
need to hear about the technical issues from engineers to know what
recommendations to make. 
"For policymakers this is a valuable opportunity to have access to this
kind of primary source input," Cerf said. 
In addition to engineers, other attendees and even Cerf said they were
concerned about ICANN going beyond its scope, with some asking the group
to formally restate its mission and even restructure.

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