[ISN] War Hack Attacks Tit For Tat

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Mon Mar 31 2003 - 02:29:38 PST

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    http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58275,00.html
    
    Reuters  
    March 28, 2003 
    
    LONDON -- Pro-and-anti Iraq war protesters have been making their
    point by hacking into Web sites in a display of cyber activism, rather
    than with the traditional can of spray paint or placard.
    
    Countless activists -- protesters or war hawks -- have the ability to
    hijack or cripple Web sites from the opposing camp, leaving in their
    wake a graveyard of busted and defaced links.
    
    "This is the future of protest," said Roberto Preatoni, founder of
    Zone-H, an Estonian firm that monitors and records hacking attacks.  
    Since the war in Iraq started last week, the firm has recorded over
    20,000 website defacements.
    
    The most notable victim was al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite TV
    network that angered many Western viewers earlier this week when it
    aired footage of dead British and American soldiers and of prisoners
    of war.
    
    The Arabic-language site, www.aljazeera.net, flickered to life on
    Friday, but access to the English-language version remained
    impossible, the result of repeated hack attacks since Monday.
    
    On Thursday, visitors to the English site were greeted with a
    stars-and-stripes logo saying "Let Freedom Ring." Earlier, "Hacked by
    Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia," was scrawled on the site
    beneath a logo containing the U.S. flag.
    
    A representative for the FBI said the agency was investigating the
    al-Jazeera website hack.
    
    Al-Jazeera was not alone. Sites on both sides of the war have been
    targeted, as have sites with no obvious affiliation to the war effort.
    
    Last week, when bombs first began to drop on Baghdad, hundreds of U.S.  
    and British business, government and municipal Web sites were defaced
    with anti-war messages, security experts reported. Seemingly within
    hours, more hawkish hackers went on the offensive against Arab sites.
    
    Identifying themselves with such nicknames as Hackweiser and DkD,
    hackers and hacker groups are hard to track down.
    
    While Faisal Bodi, senior editor for Aljazeera.net, pointed a finger
    at the Bush administration, security experts dismiss the existence of
    state-sponsored hacking initiatives.
    
    Instead they say they are usually the work of private groups or
    individuals with a particular viewpoint to communicate -- or with the
    aim of gagging their opponent. The recent tit-for-tat attacks prompted
    calls from free speech activists -- and even some hackers -- for a
    cease-fire.
    
    "In a protest or activist scenario, one would hope that one's cause
    and message were strong enough that 'shouting down' the opposing
    viewpoint is considered unnecessary," said Mark Loveless, a hacker who
    works for U.S. security software company BindView Corp. and is known
    online as Simple Nomad.
    
    "People wouldn't tolerate groups that burn down book shops or news
    agents that sell publications they don't agree with. They shouldn't
    tolerate the online equivalent," said Ian Brown, director of the
    Foundation for Information Policy Research, a British free speech
    think tank.
    
    But others are convinced the worst is yet to come. "If you take down
    al-Jazeera, everybody around the world knows it. And you never have to
    leave your house," Preatoni said.
    
    
    
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