Hacker War Rages in Holy Land

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40030,00.html

by Carmen J. Gentile
2:00 a.m. Nov. 8, 2000 PST

Israelis and Palestinians are waging a cyberspace hacking war,
employing a variety of tactics such as site defacements, system
penetrations, misinformation campaigns and the possible use of viruses
or Trojan horses.

Thats the word according to iDefense, an international private
intelligence outfit monitoring hacker activities for private and
public-sector clients. Not only has the rash of defacements already
crashed official government and corporate sites, but it is expected to
continue and intensify as political tensions in the region heighten.

Since Oct. 6, when the Israeli/Palestinian cyberconflict moved into
full swing, pro-Palestinian hackers have defaced at least 40 Israeli
sites while Israeli antagonists have marred 15 Palestinian sites.

iDefense Chairman and CEO James Adams believes the current rash of
attacks between the Palestinians and Israelis is "just a taste of
things to come."

"We expect to see more wars like this one being waged out there," said
Adams, who foresees the future of warfare as one conducted not only by
nations with armies, but by individuals with common gripes, banning
together against a common enemy.

"Their weapon of choice, the laptop, is easily available, and the
ammunition, viruses and hacking programs, is free on the Internet," he
said.

The current conflict is believed to have begun shortly after
pro-Israeli attackers created a website called Wizel.com -- a host for
FloodNet attack, which reloads a targeted Web page several times per
minute, thereby rendering the site inoperable.

Six different Hezbollah sites, including Hamas.org and other
Palestinian informational sites, were victims of the FloodNet device.

Pro-Palestinian attackers quickly rallied from the assault and
attacked Wizel.com and a wide range of Israeli sites, including the
Bank of Israel and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Back and forth, the Israelis and Palestinians launch attack after
attack, often rewriting the same hacking programs to destroy their
creators site.

Analysis by iDefense reveals a number of key players and organizations
involved in the war. On the Israeli side, the wizel.com creators,
a.israforce.com, SmallMistake and Hizballa are just a few of the
individuals or groups waging battles against Palestinians.

On the other front, Unity, a Muslim extremist group with ties to
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, has been one of the forerunners
in what pro-Palestinian hackers commonly refer to in chat rooms and
bulletin boards as "e-jihad" or "cyber-jihad."

Credited with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange hit, Unity has announced
that it has begun phase three of its four-part cyberwar. Phase one of
their cyber jihad focused on crashing official Israeli government
sites. Phase two included the Bank of Israel hit, while Phase three
targets the Israeli ISP infrastructure and the site for Lucent, as
well as that of Golden Lines, an Israeli telecommunications provider.

For their part, Unity has said it will hold off on the fourth and
final phase of its plan, namely the destruction of Israeli e-commerce
sites.

"We warn the Zionists and their supporters that any attempt to touch
any Anti-Zionist site will be faced with phase four of the cyberwar --
[causing] millions of dollars of losses in transactions," wrote a
Unity spokesperson.

The group was particularly infuriated when Hezbollah officials claimed
an Israeli attack began after the site (www.hezbollah.org) started
showing recent video clips of Israeli ground attacks on Palestinians
in Gaza. Hezbollah has since increased its server capacity to help
ward off further attacks.

Though pro-Israeli hackers have successfully defaced several important
Palestinian sites, including that of the Palestinian National
Authority, iDefense director of intelligence production Ben Venzke
believes the Palestinians are winning the war in cyberspace.

Based on the number of sites defaced and the legions of people joining
in the effort, pro-Palestinian hackers are rallying additional support
for their effort every day.

"There are people on the Palestinian side trying to learn how to hack
overnight to join the effort," said Venzke. Everyone from
"script-kiddies" to professional hackers has joined Unity and other
hacker groups in their effort to destroy Israeli interests.

One entity Venzke has taken particular interest in is the
pro-Palestinian hacker who goes by the name dodi. A skilled hacker,
dodi has been responsible for some of the most destructive attacks in
this war.

On November 3, Cognifit.co.il, a service provider for elderly Israeli
citizens, was defaced by dodi. On the site, the hacker claimed he
could shut down the Israeli ISP NetVision, which claims it hosts
almost 70 percent of all the countrys Internet traffic.

"A shutdown of NetVision would be tantamount to knocking Israel off
the Net for a significant period of time," said Venzke. Along with the
threat, dodi included a warning for U.S. interests on the Net.

"I would also like to add that this isnt just a war against Israel,
for the perpetrators of the atrocities in Palestine are U.S.-backed,"
said dodi. "Its America which has blood on its hands, the blood of
innocent women and children."

High-profile websites such as Yahoo! and CNN.com, which have been
victims of cyberattacks in the past, are thought to be potential
targets in the current conflict, according to iDefense, simply because
Palestinians or Israeli attackers may find them a good vehicle through
which to promote their causes.

"What follows next no one knows for sure," said Adams, though he does
speculate on a future in which hack attacks move beyond simple site
defacement and into the realm of serious interference such as
tampering with telephone and electrical grids. But for now, the cyber
war rages on with assaults escalating in severity day by day. "Right
now its anarchy out there," he said.


*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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