http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/fbi-rules-out-cyberattacks/2005/12/08/1133829693386.html Washington December 8, 2005 Al Qaida and other terrorist groups are more sophisticated in their use of computers but still are unable to mount crippling internet-based attacks against US power grids, airports and other targets, the FBI's top cyber crime official said on Wednesday. Investigators keep a close watch on terrorist groups' use of computers but have not detected any plans to launch cyber attacks against major public institutions in the US, FBI assistant director Louis Reigel said. "I don't think that capability exists today," Reigel told reporters at FBI headquarters. The government has conducted simulated terrorist attacks on computer, banking and utility systems, and Reigel said his division of around 1100 agents took the prospect of such a strike seriously. FBI experts had noticed progress in the technical mastery suspected terrorists had shown online, he said. One new wrinkle first appeared four months ago, he said, without being specific. Terrorists also had made only infrequent use of steganography, the practice of hiding a text message in another kind of file, typically a picture, Reigel said. "It looks like a picture, but if you have the right program, you can extract a text message embedded in a picture," said Reigel, a 31-year FBI veteran who formerly led the New Orleans field office. On another matter, the FBI still had no suspect in the spread of the latest version of a Windows worm that began appearing last month as emails purporting to come from the FBI, CIA and German security services, Reigel said. The third version of the Sober worm spread so quickly and widely that at one point the FBI was bombarded with 200,000 emails a minute over four days, he said. "It almost killed our system," Reigel said, before technicians developed a means to divert the messages. Unlike with earlier versions, "this time we believe we have enough information to where we can pursue a logical investigation," he said. _________________________________________ Earn your Master's degree in Information Security ONLINE www.msia.norwich.edu/csi Study IA management practices and the latest infosec issues. Norwich University is an NSA Center of Excellence.
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