IP: A Serbic cyberattacks and counterattacks from RISKS

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:34:44 +0000 
From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann () csl sri com> 

NATO announced that its Web server in Brussels had been under a 
PING-of-death (Packet INternet Groper) attack from somewhere within Serbia. 
John Pike labeled it "a textbook example that will be cited from now on as a 
low-cost, high-value attack." [Source: Serbia launches cyberattack on NATO, 
*Federal Computer Week*, 31 Mar 1999, by Daniel Verton (dan_verton () fcw com); 
PGN-ed] The ease with which such attacks and other denials of service can be 
perpetrated is one more reminder of the general flakiness of our information 
infrastructures, but then RISKS readers are probably the last to be 
surprised.
In a spy-vs-spy-style retaliation, various Internet denizens sent half a 
million e-mail bombs to www.gov.yu, the main Yugoslav Web site, before it 
shut down on 3 Apr 1999. There were also reports *The Boston Globe* of a 
U.S. group called Team Spl0it and European and Albanian penetrators changing 
Web sites. On the other hand, there are also reports of Russian hackers 
going after U.S. Navy Web sites. [Source: E-Strikes and Cyber-Sabotage: 
Civilian Hackers Go Online to Fight. 15 Apr 1999, by Patrick Riley, 
http://www.foxnews.com/stage11.sml; PGN-ed from a cypherpunks item courtesy 
of Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>] 
Riley cited some concerns that vigilante hacktivism might be misinterpreted 
as sanctioned government action. On the other hand, given the existing 
system and network flakiness, there might also be concern that what might 
seem to be vigilante hacktivism might actually be government sponsored! 
Perhaps future wars will be fought by our-hackers-vs-their-hackers in purely 
electronic warfare. It would save a lot in armaments, and would inspire 
greater system robustness that otherwise seems impossible to attain!