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Hacker attacks strike numerous Jewish Web sites
From: William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2000 18:27:39 -0600
http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500276044-500431830-502730330-0,00.html IAN HOPPER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (November 3, 2000 7:52 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Animosity between Israel and Palestinians is spilling over into cyberspace, with Arab computer "hacktivists" launching attacks on Jewish Web sites both in Israel and the United States. Two Arab hacker groups broke into and defaced Israeli Web sites Friday following an attack Wednesday in which Pakistani-based hackers attacked a U.S. Web site belonging to a powerful pro-Israel lobby, stealing credit card numbers and member records. Now more hackers are targeting Israeli sites, supporting the perpetrators of Wednesday's attack with diatribes against Israel and graphic photos of the injured. The efforts are part of a relatively new way of combining hacking with political resistance, known as "hacktivism." Mexican guerrilla and Yugoslav hackers have used the tactic and several Pakistani groups periodically target Indian Web sites, condemning Indians for violence in the disputed territory of Kashmir. An international security consulting firm, Control Risks Group, released a report this week warning companies about hacktivists and their recent attacks against business Web sites rather than just government agencies. "Some of these attacks result in something like a sit-in," said Kent Anderson, the company's director of security and investigations. "But some of the groups have more of a malicious bent to them." The practice is popular among the young, opinionated and disaffected seeking a way to strike against governments with little risk. With so many Web sites as targets, it's simple for them to find one with lax security, ripe for an attack. The Israeli-Palestinian violence that flared several weeks ago has kept Web site administrators on both sides busy defending their sites from enemy hackers attempting to win a propaganda war. In the volleys, hackers have targeted the Web sites of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, an Israeli Internet provider and several sites run by the Hezbollah guerrillas. One group calling itself GForce Pakistan, which has defaced many Web sites in the past, assaulted at least three Israeli sites Friday - the Jewish Bible Association and the Visiting Israel Students Association and a technology company. The hackers replaced their pages with "Free Kashmir" and "Free Palestine" slogans and added bloody images. "m0r0n and nightman" took credit for an attack on a site belonging to an Israeli school, Yizrael Valley College. "Today we are very happy that people are coming back and hacking against the cruelties done to Muslims all round the world," the hackers wrote on the defaced college site. In Wednesday's attack against the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, hackers also downloaded donors' credit card information and made the numbers public on other Web sites run by the hackers. Spokesman Ken Bricker said the 700 affected members - which included some public officials - have been notified. In the past year, hackers have stolen hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers from Internet retail sites. The numbers are typically sold or auctioned. Hacktivists, however, rarely steal data. B.K. DeLong, a staff member of Attrition.org, a site that monitors Web security issues, said hacktivism is meant more for the general public than the target government. "I'm not sure if political leaders in the center of the issue being brought up in the defacements really pay attention to them unless it happens to be their own organization, government or departmental Web site," said DeLong. "However they do enlighten the general public to the situation or perhaps people in other countries who are tech savvy but may not be aware of the issue." Though the lobbying group's site is down, Bricker said he's not demoralized. "From a P.R. point of view, this is a net gain for us," he said. "They have given us the role of victim here. We're getting phone calls from people who now want to join and donate, albeit not through the Internet." *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- Hacker attacks strike numerous Jewish Web sites William Knowles (Nov 06)