Islamic groups 'attack' Israeli Web sites

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500272981-500426048-502665637-0,00.html

By DINA KRAFT, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (October 26, 2000 2:26 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
Several Israeli Web sites expressing the government's perspective on
the Mideast conflict crashed after Islamic groups abroad jammed them
with fake traffic, Israeli officials said Thursday.

The cyberattack was the most intense since Israel's government
launched its Internet sites several years ago, and opens a new front
in Israel's confrontation with the Arab world.

Palestinian rioters have been clashing with Israeli forces for almost
a month. At a weekend summit, Islamic countries condemned Israel and
called for cutting relations with the Jewish state.

Both sides are emphasizing the public relations aspect of their
conflict. Interest in the Israeli government Web sites has increased
noticeably since the violence began Sept. 28, officials said. The
targeted sites provide information about the conflict from an official
Israeli point of view.

The first shot in the cyberwar was apparently fired by some Israeli
teen-agers, who bragged to a local newspaper last week that they had
sabotaged a Web site of the Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Return fire was not long in coming.

Uri Noy, who oversees the Foreign Ministry's Web site, said several
extremist Islamic Web sites called on their users to attack Israeli
sites. Those groups, Noy said, provided users with computer programs
that automate attacks by flooding sites with e-mail sent through a Web
link.

The attacks are similar in concept to ones that crippled Yahoo!, CNN
and other sites in the United States and caused tens of millions of
dollars in losses earlier this year.

"It's too bad that the Internet has become another battleground," said
member of parliament Michael Eitan, the Knesset Internet expert. "We
need to have a cease-fire on the Web."

First, the official site of the Israeli prime minister's office went
down. After that site was restored, the Foreign Ministry's Web site
was overwhelmed by incoming mail and knocked off the Web. Almost two
days after the attack began, the site had still not been restored.

The Israeli army repaired its information Web site, and to increase
security, switched from a local server to one connected to the U.S.
communications giant AT&T, the military said.

The Web site of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, was the target of a
different kind of cyberattack. Hackers broke into the site and
tampered with its files, Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said. He said
the attack may have come from Saudi Arabia.

An Israeli Internet service provider that hosts the three targeted
sites scrambled to make repairs Thursday.

Israeli officials said no damage was done to sensitive computer
systems used by the army and the government, since they are kept
separate from the public Internet.

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