Pro-Islamic hackers join forces

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2052000/2052320.stm

Wednesday, 19 June, 2002

There is mounting evidence that individual hacker groups connected by
a pro-Islamic agenda are working together to carry out hack attacks,
say experts.

Security firm mi2g says an alliance of anti-Israel, anti-US and
anti-India groups are increasingly highlighting issues such as the
Middle East conflict, the war on terrorism and the Kashmir stand-off
as part of their destructive digital attacks.

At the height of the tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir
in May, two groups (Unix Security Guards and World Fantabulous
Defacers) carried out a total of 111 digital attacks on Indian
educational and business sites.

Security firm mi2g said political and ideological motives were
increasingly behind hack attacks.

Digital tensions

At a round table event in London to discuss the security threats in a
post-11 September world, Chief Executive of mi2g, DK Matai, said
hacktivism posed one of the biggest risks to business and government
computer systems.

"Political motivation is an increasingly rising factor in digital
attacks," he told delegates at the forum.

"The primary reason why web attacks are increasing is political
tensions between Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan and China
and Taiwan."

New viruses decreasing

Israel has suffered a barrage of hack attacks since the start of the
Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

An Egyptian hacker group has said it is behind the action. It began
its activities shortly after 11 September.

Similar attacks happened during the Serbian conflict in 1999 when Nato
and US Department of Defense networks were targeted by pro-Serbian
hackers.

Despite the gloomy picture, the total number of new viruses has
actually been decreasing since a peak in 1997, according to mi2g.

However, new viruses are causing more havoc because of the number of
computers that are now networked together.

"When one catches a cold the entire global organisation catches it,"  
said Mr Matai.

-=-

Hacktivist groups

USG (Unix Security Guards) - an anti-Israel alliance responsible for
87 overt attacks since May 2002


WFD (World's Fantabulous Defacers) - a Pakistani alliance of 12 member
groups responsible for 445 overt attacks since November 2000

AIC (Anti-India Crew) - a Pakistani alliance founded in July 2001,
responsible for 422 attacks to date


 
*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
================================================================
C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org
*==============================================================*



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

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