-----Original Message----- From: NIPC Watch [mailto:nipc.watch@private] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 8:06 AM To: Information Technology Subject: [Information_technology] Daily News 02/11/03 February 07, Medill News Service Don't underestimate cyberterrorists, experts warn. The Internet is becoming a new battleground for warfare, according to experts concerned about the potential of a cyberattack to cripple the public infrastructure. The recent Slammer worm, which blocked Internet traffic and crippled some corporate networks for most of a weekend, is just a watered-down version of a cybercrisis that could disrupt everything from banks to water supplies, critics say. In the Mideast conflict, pro-Palestinian hackers have successfully taken down Web sites of the Israeli Parliament, the Israeli Defense Force, the Foreign Ministry, the Bank of Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and others, according to a report by Dartmouth College's Institute for Security Technology Studies. Dartmouth's study charts how political cyberattacks often precede physical attacks. Cyberattacks after U.S.-led military action are "extremely likely" and could possibly be catastrophic, according to the report. Information systems--like electrical infrastructures, water resources, and oil and gas--should be considered likely targets, it warns. While cyberattacks can take a variety of forms and may originate from terrorist groups or targeted nation states, they are more likely to be launched by sympathizers or thrill-seekers, according to the institute's report. Source: http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=785058 February 05, CNET News GSA pulls suspicious .gov site. The General Services Administration (GSA), which runs the .gov registry, pulled the plug on a .gov Web site pending an investigation into the authenticity of the organization that controlled it. Until January 24, the AONN.gov Web site contained information about an agency calling itself the Access One Network Northwest (AONN), a self-described cyberwarfare unit claiming to employ more than 2,000 people and had the support of the U.S. Department of Defense. No federal agency called AONN appears to exist, and no agency with that name is on the official list of organizations maintained by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. The action could point to the first case of a .gov domain name hijacking. Cybersquatting, or registering a domain to which you may not be entitled, is hardly uncommon among the multitude of .com and .net domains. But there are no known cybersquatting incidents involving a governmental domain, according to the GSA. Claiming credit for the deleted .gov site is a man who calls himself Robert L. Taylor III. Taylor declined to explain how or when he secured a .gov domain for the group, calling AONN's operations "classified." A Pentagon representative said that AONN has no affiliation with the U.S. military and he had no knowledge of the organization. According to the official .gov registration rules, only organizations that appear in an official list of government agencies qualify for a .gov domain--and AONN is not on it. Registering a .gov domain name involves writing an authorization letter, printing it out, and then sending it to the ".GOV Domain Manager" in Reston, Virginia. Source: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-983384.html?tag=fd_ots Internet Security Systems - AlertCon: 1 out of 4 https://gtoc.iss.net/ Security Focus - ThreatCon: 1 out of 4 www.securityfocus.com Last Changed 3 February 2003 Last Changed 29 January 2003 Current Virus and Port Attacks Virus: #1 Virus in USA: PE_FUNLOVE.4099 Source: http://wtc.trendmicro.com/wtc/wmap.html, Trend World Micro Virus Tracking Center [Infected Computers, North America, Past 24 hours, #1 in United States] Top 10 Target Ports: 137 (netbios-ns), 1434 (ms-sql-m), 80 (http), 53 (domain), 1433 (ms-sql-s), 445 (microsoft-ds), 139 (netbios-ssn), 21 (ftp), 443 (https), 25 (smtp) Source: http://isc.incidents.org/top10.html; Internet Storm Center _______________________________________________ Information_technology mailing list Information_technology@listserv http://listserv.infragard.org/mailman/listinfo/information_technology
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