-----Original Message----- From: NIPC Watch To: daily@private Sent: 9/17/01 9:06 AM Subject: NIPC Daily Report 17 September NOTE: Please understand that this is for informational purposes only and does not constitute any verification of the information contained in the report nor does this constitute endorsement by the NIPC of the FBI. The NIPC Daily Report 17 September Significant Changes and Assessment - No significant changes. International - A group calling itself the Dispatchers, posted a statement on the Web that says it has already disabled ISPs in Palestine and is targeting ISPs in Afghanistan with the explicit goal of destroying them. The Dispatchers, claiming to be approximately 300 strong, said they will also go after Pakistan, Iraq and several other Middle Eastern countries. "Right now, we're trying to get as many computers as possible," said "Dawgyg," a cracker from World of Hell. "You remember the Mafiaboy thing? We're basically going to do (the same thing) to their routers and destroy their Internet connections throughout the Middle East. We're not going to deface their pages this time. We're going to down their Internet." The cracker groups said they are planning a coordinated attack against Internet infrastructure in targeted countries and other critical information systems. (Source: Newsbytes, 14 September) Jan de Wit, the 20-year-old who wrote the Anna Kournikova virus, went to trial on 13 September, but the prosecutor asked for a relatively light sentence with no jail term, 240 hours of community service. De Wit was charged with spreading data through a computer network, with the intent to cause damage. The maximum penalty for the offense is four years' jail and a fine of up to 100,000 Dutch guilders (U.S. $41,130). It is the first time in Dutch history that a writer of a computer virus is being tried. De Wit had written the worm with a worm-making toolkit, then posted it on an Internet newsgroup. (Source: ZDNet News, 14 September) Private Sector - On 16 September, Amazon.com suffered a "hardware failure" that crashed several of its departments for more than 12 hours, including the area where Amazon was accepting donations to help victims of the 11 September terrorist attacks. Amazon's Auctions, Z-Shops and Marketplace areas went down about 10 p.m. on 15 September. The glitch also shut down Amazon's Honor System, a payment method that allows Web sites to solicit small donations from Amazon customers. (CNET News, 16 September) Government - On 13 September, legislation was approved that would dramatically expand the powers of law enforcement agencies to track the online activities of suspected criminals and terrorists. Approved as an amendment to the massive Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill, which the Senate approved late Thursday, the last-minute amendment, proposed by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would extend long-standing phone surveillance laws to the Internet. Among other things, the legislation would broaden "pen-register" and "trap-and- trace" laws - which allow law enforcers to obtain the phone records of suspected criminals - to cover Internet communications. E-mail addresses, Web sites and even the terms that users entered in search engines could be easily obtained by law enforcers if the legislation is approved.. (Source: Newsbytes,15 September) Military - NTR U.S. SECTOR INFORMATION: Telecommunications - Verizon Communications is routing network traffic around one of its largest central offices, a facility in lower Manhattan that served about 3 million private lines to customers. The company's 140 West Street facility is one of Verizon's largest switching centers. It's located adjacent to 7 World Trade Center, which collapsed on 11 September. West Street suffered water and other collateral damage as a result of the World Trade Center collapse. (Source: Internet Week, 13 September) Sprint Corp., the No. 3 US long-distance telephone company, said power failures at a New York switching facility near the destroyed World Trade Center temporarily disrupted service to some voice and data customers on 15 September, and caused wireless outages in southern Connecticut. Commercial power at the switching facility in lower Manhattan began fluctuating at about 3:30 a.m. (0730 GMT), which forced Sprint to alternately switch among battery, generator, and commercial power. Although service for most Sprint's long-distance and wireless customers remains normal, damage to local telephone companies' facilities may make it difficult to complete calls to New York City. By 5:30 p.m. EDT, Sprint said the south Manhattan switching site had stabilized and was processing voice and data traffic normally. Sprint PCS wireless service had also been restored in southern Connecticut. (Source: Reuters, 15 September) Transportation - NTR Banking and Finance - NTR Gas and Oil Storage Distribution - NTR Emergency Services - NTR Water Supply - NTR Government Services - NTR Electrical Power - NTR
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