Pro-Israel hackers told to ignore 'cyberterror'

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=19&datee=3/23/01&id=114425

By Tamar Hausman
Friday, March 23, 2001

Like the pro-Palestinian e-mail virus that struck 10,000 Israeli
e-mail users this week, most "cyberwar" actions by the two sides since
the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada have not done any permanent damage.

"But this virus, and others like it, could cause a boomerang effect if
pro- Israeli hackers play into the [pro-Palestinian hackers'] hands,"
says Yael Shahar, Webmaster at the International Policy Institute for
Counter Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

"We don't know what the intent was, but it's likely that it was done
to prompt malicious reaction by the other side, and then if we allow
ourselves to be manipulated, we come off looking like the bad guys."

So far, Intifada-related "cyberterror" has simply been intended to
raise awareness of their respective causes. The cyberwar has not
escalated in recent months; in fact, most such actions fall into the
category of "peaceful protest," says Shahar, a new immigrant from
Texas who is researching cyberwarfare against Israel.

This week's virus temporarily disabled computer files and flooded
Israeli mail servers, but did not cause real damage to computers - and
even contained a note indicating as much. Most cyberwarfare activity
on both sides has involved the defacing of Web sites, and has not been
aimed at infrastructure systems, which would cause major economic
damage.

Pro-Palestinian hackers are winning the war against pro-Israeli
hackers, says Shahar, in terms of the low-level damage caused to Web
sites.

She adds that many groups on both sides have realized that hacking,
while intended to create "public relations" for their cause, is
actually viewed by the public as criminal activity. As a result, they
have decreased and toned down their activities. At the same time,
however, says Shahar, other groups have increased their actions.

"There are still lots of defacements out there," she says. "But no
high-level damage."

Christopher Wolf, a U.S. attorney who chairs the Anti-Defamation
League's Internet Policy Committee, agrees that the cyberwar hasn't
escalated to a dangerous point. "I do think that a lot of the impetus
for the attacks is the desire to get PR. No question damage has been
caused, but the 'gotcha' aspect of it is significant," he says.

"I am not sure either side is winning in terms of causing real,
lasting damage. Most of the attacks are harmful - but not fatal - to
computers and data. To a large extent, the actions are harassing and
designed to get attention."

Still, he adds that "a proliferation of attacks can cause economic
harm. One hopes that military and health and welfare systems are
especially secured against such attacks."

Neither ICT nor Wolf have kept count of the hits to both sides. Shahar
says that the bulk of pro-Palestinian cyberwarfare against Israel is
coming from Pakistanis and Lebanese, mainly in the U.S., but also in
their own countries.

ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".