Pro-Palestinian Hackers Threaten AT&T

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20001110S0010

By Barnaby Page
11/10/00, 5:17 p.m. ET

AT&T Corp. could be the next target of the hacking war which is
running parallel to the violent Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Security-information company LogiKeep Inc. said that notes posted in
recent anti-Israel site defacements indicate that attacks against the
telecommunications company are planned.

It is the latest shot in an online war that is being fought far from
Gaza and the West Bank. There are also indications that hackers are
active within Saudi Arabia, although they have not been linked to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The messages on the AT&T site, from a group called GForce Pakistan,
suggest the group is planning to reroute traffic from AT&T (stock: T)
to competitor Qwest Communications International Inc. (stock: Q).

The notes predict more attacks against Israel and offer help in
coordinating the actions.

More than 40 sites have been attacked by the two sides since Oct. 6,
according to security consultants Infrastructure Defense Inc.,
Fairfax, Va.

Attacks on Palestinian websites have come from western Europe,
according to Arab sources, while leading Israeli ISP NetVision claims
that it has been targeted by hackers from the U.S., Germany, and
Scandinavia as well as Lebanon, a center of pro-Palestinian optimism.

Pakistani involvement became apparent last week when the website of
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Washington, D.C. lobby
group, was brought down by a hacker styling himself "Doctor Nuker,"
who has been responsible for more than 80 attacks over the past year
under the guise of the Pakistani Hackerz Club.

Contacted online by TechWeb, Doctor Nuker would not comment on his
location.

Given the control that NetVision has over the Internet within the
Palestinian Authority territory and Israel's sophisticated security
forces, it is unlikely that pro-Palestinian attacks come from within
the Authority.

However, Arab sources claim Israeli universities have been the source
of some pro-Israeli hacking.

LogiKeep executives speculate that AT&T attacks may stem from a
request by the Israeli government for backup servers from the company.
AT&T is aware of the threats and is prepared to defend its network, a
company spokesman said.

AT&T declined to detail what, if any, additional security steps have
been taken.

Threats against AT&T come days after pro-Palestinian hackers launched
a failed denial-of-service attack against Lucent Technologies Inc.
(stock: LU).

Separately, TechWeb has learned that the website of a European
e-tailer was subjected to an apparent denial-of-service attack late
this summer originating from Saudi Arabia.

No motive was apparent, casting doubt on the secretive kingdom's
control of the Internet.

All international IP traffic from Saudi Arabia's approximately 27 ISPs
goes through a small number of proxies at the Internet Services Unit,
King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh (KACST-ISU),
which says logs are kept.

However, a manager at the European e-tailer said that when he asked
for an investigation, KACST-ISU replied that it had lost the logs.

"This means that anybody in Saudi can do what they like and can't be
traced," he said, adding: "We now block all traffic coming from their
routers at our firewall."

KACST-ISU spokesman Fahad Hoymany said: "We take hacking and network
abuse very seriously, and we do not tolerate that in Saudi Arabia.
KACST-ISU has demanded a set of procedures be carried out by all ISPs
to try to deter hacking and spamming attempts. These include
anti-address-spoofing measures and logs of activities."

Regulations outlining fines and other penalties for offenders would be
issued shortly, he said, adding that he was not aware of any hacking
prosecutions in Saudi Arabia to date.

The number of Internet users in Saudi Arabia is estimated to reach
300,000 by the end of this year. KACST-ISU figures suggest most are
young, educated people connecting from home, although other reports
say that Internet cafes are growing in importance.

Tarik Allagany, spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington,
declined to comment.

[The American Israel Public Affairs Committee Defacement]
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/11/02/www.aipac.org/


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