IP: FBI Warns Of Increased Hacktivism, Cyber Protests

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171178.html
>
> FBI Warns Of Increased Hacktivism, Cyber Protests
>
>   By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes
>   WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
>   16 Oct 2001, 3:03 PM CST
>
>
>   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."
>
>   The NIPC warning is on the Web at: http://www.nipc.gov/cyberprotests.pdf
>
>   Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com


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