From: iw@all.net
Subject: IW Mailing List iw/960302
---------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 21:00:59 -0600
From: David Lemmon 
Subject: Re: IW Mailing List iw/960227

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 96 08:22:30 EST
> >From: rebowes@tasc.com (Bob Bowes)
> Subject: Re:Mexican Countermeasures?
> 
> ...
> Is this mailing list now going to be used to facilitate IW? I thought
> the purpose of this list was to discuss the various aspects of IW, not
> serve as a forum to call a "strike" against a particular site.
> Perhaps Mr. Bowes may have missed the point, as our moderator pointed out.  

People should realize that these Net Strike messages ARE one PART of the
"various" aspects of IW - an actual real life part.  More importantly,
these types of groups (political extremist on either side) seem to be
becoming more adapt at figuring out how to organize, plan, and launch
such attacks.  Furthermore, an interesting note to consider, many people
often speak of denial of service as being one of the most important
aspects of IW.  This group, Strano Network (part of the European Counter
Network), whether considered large or small, competent or incompetent,
appears to have succeeded in denying service to these two small sites. 
By changing their address locations for these public sites, and not
telling anyone, users are effectively blocked out of these Mexican
sites- the attack succeeds without necessarily even being launched.  In
much the same way an enemy radar operator might switch his radar off
instead of being blown up by a HARM missile, (exactly what was desired
in the first place) the THREAT of attack causes the intended result,
whether the physical attacks occurs or not.  How will governments react
to better organized, more sophisticated attacks by political extremist
groups? How would the US respond to such threats? Any plans even on the
books? Certainly an important aspect of IW to consider. 
---------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 08:29:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Sick Puppy 
Subject: Is there a current hacker crackdown?

I have heard from two different people in the last two months about an 
ongoing hacker crackdown that is based on evidence collected by an 
active intrusion monitoring database that was developed for and is being 
operated by a government agency.  Obviously I can't quote those people.

From my point of view, a crackdown on hackers qualifies as information 
warfare.  Do any list members think there is anything they can safely say 
on the list about this alleged crackdown? 

[I wonder whether all.net will end up being shut down by this action.  Any
database on intrusion detection should include thousands of examples of the
all.net automated testing service probing into sites.]
---------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 09:30:37 -0800
From: jms@tennis.opus1.com (Joel M Snyder, writing fool)
Subject: High mail volumes at whitehouse.gov
 
Good day.  By way of introduction, I'm the consultant who did the
"anti-mailstorm/anti-mailbomb" software that runs on the MX host for
WHITEHOUSE.GOV.  Now that the Telecom.  Act of 1996 has been signed, the
volume of mail through WHITEHOUSE.GOV has gone up significantly.  For
example, there were about 85,000 lines in the mail log file yesterday. 
 
Most of that is just people who want to express their opinion.  However,
several misguided individuals have decided that they want to throw a
monkey wrench into the works by storming the President's email. 
 
I'm writing this to let any system administrators out there know that
you may find mail from your site to WHITEHOUSE.GOV is not moving very
quickly.  This is normal; it's a sign that the automatic protections of
that system have kicked in. 
 
Without going into details, if too many messages come from a single
site, the mail handler will throttle back accepting messages. 
Eventually, though, the mail will be accepted for delivery.  If you have
legitimate mail, it will eventually get through (many messages from the
same correspondent will be flushed without acknowledgement).  However,
correspondents who were used to getting a reply within seconds telling
them that their message was accepted may see a substantial delay. 
 
Finally, if any users on your site have any delusions about the effect
of a mail bomb or storm of mail, let me help you dispel them: (1) no one
important enough to make a difference will be affected or know or care;
(2) if the messages are nasty or threatening enough, someone equally
nasty may come and visit; (3) what you'll succeed most in doing is
ruining the weekends and/or days of underpaid civil servants as well as
wasting federal tax dollars. 
 
Please feel free to redistribute this or use parts of it in your motd. 
 
PS: I don't read these newsgroups and am spending most of the weekend
trying to make sure that the mail system doesn't melt down anyway, so if
there is discussion on this, I won't see it.
---------------------------------------------