[ISN] Hackers Discuss Retaliatory Cyberstrikes

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2001 - 22:47:56 PDT

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    http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170025.html
    
    By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes
    WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
    12 Sep 2001, 3:40 PM CST
     
    Although the U.S. government has yet to publicly identify suspects in
    Tuesday's terrorist attacks on America, some hackers are already
    plotting counterstrikes against Islamic Web sites, according to
    postings in Internet newsgroups.
    
    So far, the impact of the planned retaliatory hacking has been
    limited.
    
    The official Web site of the Presidential Palace of the Islamic State
    of Afghanistan was unreachable today, after its address was published
    in several Internet newsgroups.
    
    "Let the Afghan government know what you think about them harboring
    Bin Laden," wrote one participant in talk.guns.politics.
    
    Similarly, the homepage of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been
    frequently inaccessible today, despite a statement at the site from
    president general Pervez Musharraf condemning the attacks. The site's
    address was posted Tuesday to an Internet newsgroup named
    alt.hackers.malicious in a message entitled "Pakistani government
    LOVES trojans."
    
    Attempts to reach operators of the two sites, which may be under a
    denial of service attack, were unsuccessful.
    
    The Web site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic State
    of Afghanistan, however, appeared to be fully operational today.
    
    Federal agents reportedly have taken into custody several people in
    three states today who may be connected to the attacks on New York and
    Washington, D.C. But no arrests have yet been announced.
    
    A message posted to several hacking newsgroups Tuesday instructed
    readers to "trash this site ASAP" and provided what the poster claimed
    was the address of "Osama Bin Laden's Web site."
    
    The address currently redirects surfers to a page that has "exceeded
    its allocated data transfer" according to a message from Yahoo's
    Geocities free Web page service.
    
    According to a statement from the U.S. State Department, Usama Bin
    Muhammad Bin Awad Bin Ladin "is one of the most significant sponsors
    of Sunni Islamic terrorist groups."
    
    An article published today at an online news site suggested that
    Taleban.com, a Web site registered to an organization in Flushing, New
    York, was defaced by a Russian hacker in response to Tuesday's
    attacks.
    
    It was not immediately clear, however, when the defacement took place.
    The same hacker also defaced Taleban.com in March and July of this
    year, according to records maintained by the Alldas.de and
    Safemode.org defacement archives.
    
    The July defacement of Taleban.com was identical to the one on display
    at the site Tuesday, according to James Atkinson of the Granite Island
    Group, a firm specializing in technical surveillance counter measures.
    
    The operators of Taleban.com could not be reached for comment.
    
    In a statement issued today, the Computer Emergency Response Team said
    it is "not seeing any significant increases in incident activity on
    the Internet."
    
    The federally funded security information clearinghouse advised,
    however, that "recent events might cause people to examine the need to
    protect the information infrastructure."
    
    One contributor to a security mailing list offered this advice today
    to what he termed "patriotic script kiddies," "If you really want to
    do your nation a favor, lock your desktop, then go out and donate
    blood."
    
    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic State of Afghanistan is
    online at http://www.afghan.gov.af .
    
    The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is at http://www.pak.gov.pk .
    
    The Presidential Palace of the Islamic State of Afghanistan is at
    http://www.afghangovernment.org .
    
    
    
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