RE: Internet hoax sees China invade Japan

["Jason Geffner" <jasongef () microsoft com>]

Could've been another one of these:
http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/insider.htm

Long story short, The Weekly World News (a tabloid) printed a bogus
article that Yahoo then reprinted on Yahoo's website. Other legit news
agencies saw the article on Yahoo's site, didn't realize that the story
was bogus, and then reprinted the story as legit.

- Jason


-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org]
On Behalf Of Dr. Neal Krawetz
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:48 AM
To: "Fergie (Paul Ferguson)"
Cc: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: Re: [funsec] Internet hoax sees China invade Japan

On Wed Oct 19 06:23:25 2005, "Fergie (Paul Ferguson)" wrote:
> An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
>
> [snip]
>
> A fictitious article saying Chinese troops invaded the Japanese island
of
> Okinawa was seen on a bogus Japanese-language Yahoo News website at
the
> height of tensions between the two Asian neighbours.
[snip]

Boy, this really sounds like HUC.  (Honkers Union of China.)
Anything to increase hostility between China and Japan...

HUC broke up a while ago, then re-announced their formation.


> Both Kyodo News and Yahoo Japan quickly denied they had anything to do
> with the story and said they were considering legal action although
the
> identity of the perpetrators was unknown.

Does anyone know how the data got into the news agency?
  - System compromise?
  - Data poisoning over some RSS feed?
  - Data poisoning over some official news feed?

HUC are known for their DNS exploits and targeted attacks.
(5 years ago, they used wide-spread malware to cause wide-spread chaos.
But that changed to more targeted attacks.)

I can fully see a targeted DNS attack where a site like the Associated
Press gets hijacked and used to stream fake news reports into sites like
Yahoo News, USA Today, and CNN...
And if it's possible, then HUC certainly has the skills to do it.

But enough speculation...  Anyone have details?

                                        -Neal
--
Neal Krawetz, Ph.D.
Hacker Factor Solutions
http://www.hackerfactor.com/

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