"Increased Cyber Awareness"

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded by: C. L. Staten <sysop () emergency com>

http://www.nipc.gov/warnings/advisories/2001/01-020.htm

ADVISORY 01-020

"Increased Cyber Awareness"
September 14, 2001

The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) expects to see an
upswing in incidents as a result of the tragic events of September 11,
2001. Increased hacking attacks are likely to have two motivations:

* Political hacktivism by self-described "patriot" hackers targeted at
  those perceived to be responsible for the terrorist attacks. NIPC
  has already received reports of individuals encouraging vigilante
  hacking activity.

* Virus propagation in which old viruses are renamed to appear related
  to recent events. One such incident has already been reported in
  which a new version of the life_stages.txt.shs virus was renamed
  wtc.txt.vbs to appear to be related to the World Trade Center. 

The NIPC reiterates that the above conduct is illegal and punishable
as a felony, with penalties extending to five years in prison. Those
individuals who believe they are doing a service to this nation by
engaging in acts of vigilantism should know that they are actually
doing a disservice to the country.

To limit the potential damage from any cyber attacks, system
administrators are encouraged to follow best practices to ensure the
security of their networks. Some of the most basic measures are
outlined below:

* Increase user awareness 
* Update anti-virus software 
* Stop hostile attachments at the e-mail server 
* Utilize ingress & egress filtering 
* Establish policy and procedures for responding and recovery 

For a more comprehensive security checklist please refer to the
following sites:

* www.cert.org/security-improvement 
* www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/itsolutions/security/tools/
tools.asp 

* www.sans.org/topten.htm 

Recipients of this Advisory are encouraged to report computer
intrusions to their local FBI office

http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm 

or the NIPC, and to other appropriate authorities. Incidents may be
reported online at http://www.nipc.gov/incident/cirr.htm The NIPC
Watch and Warning Unit can be reached at (202) 323-3204/3205/3206 or
nipc.watch () fbi gov


-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY
of the mail.