Source: The Star, Jordan Type: Web Pointer; Web Sample Date: 14 December 2000 Title: Cyber Intifada: The Digital warriors of Arabia TEXT: The Star: Jordan's Politicial, Economic and Cultural Weekly http://www.star.com.jo/ Nov (2 - 8) 2000, Issue No. 20 06 - Dec - 2000 /02:32 PM G INTERFACE: Digital warriors of Arabia IT'S OFFICIAL: The Internet is the latest battleground. If you've been reading the news recently, you will probably have noticed reports on website hack-attacks between Arab and Israeli users. Nov 05, 2000, 04:42 PM BY ZEID NASSER JORDAN (Star) - IT'S OFFICIAL: The Internet is the latest battleground. If you've been reading the news recently, you will probably have noticed reports on website hack-attacks between Arab and Israeli users. It started last week, with an Israeli attack on the Hezbollah website (www.hizbollah.com), by which hackers crashed the site's server by flooding it with requests. It was an organized effort, carried out by several hackers. A news report stated that the attack on Hezbollah's site was first initiated by a message that was circulated over the ICQ instant messaging service. The message urged users to help their "Israeli friends" take the Hezbollah site down by using a ping command on their PCs. Throughout the day, Israeli users plotted their attack, and implemented it. Later in the week, a number of Israeli government sites were attacked, including the site of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's website. It became quite apparent that this would be the beginning of a wave of attacks and counter attacks, pitting the hacking skills of Arabs against the skills of Israelis. Reports began to emerge that all sorts of Arabic and Israeli websites were crashing under attack. Political, academic and even entertainment sites were coming under attack. The Amman-based news portal, albawaba.com, got hit by a flood of pro-Israeli messages on one of its discussion forums, which resulted in the political forum being closed down until the technicians diverted the messages and reopened it. On the other hand a newspaper reported, in detail, how an Arab hacker, who calls himself Dodi, succeeded in "defacing the Netanya Academy site in Israel, leaving a message that attacked Israel and the US and criticized Arab governments. The activist said he would carry on with his attacks until the whole Internet backbone in Israel was down." Obviously, there are enough Arab Internet users out there to counter attack. In fact, if numbers count in this new web- war, Israeli sites will probably be worried at the potential Arab Internet population! So, the skirmishes continue and are set to go on, with more dangerous prospects emerging as the networks of governments, and large private corporations may become more vulnerable. Hackers seeking to cause maximum damage will target public records, which should be easily accessible over the web soon, due to the adoption of the concept of e-government. That's quite frightening. Opening up some of the government's computer networks to 'outsider' access could compromise the security of government records and result in all sorts of damage. Citizens like you and me will be pleased to enjoy the convenience of applying for a license online, but 'nasty' hackers will jump to the opportunity of delving into this e-government server, and finding out how far they can get into the government's other networks through it! So, apart from Internet warfare, there is the somewhat more worrying aspect of security breaches in government Intranets. The issue here is whether there is enough security to prevent the possibility of any harm being done by an intelligent, motivated hacker. If the hacker is the 'enemy', then who knows what kind of remorseless data theft and data destruction will be carried out. Apart from the damage done, the downtime will frustrate the network users, just like 39,000 Microsoft employees were locked out of the company network this week due to a hack attack! Contrary to the 'patriotic' nature of recent hacking incidents in the Middle East, hacking cases tend to be corporate crime incidents. That kind of hacking will soon be happening in our region too. However, for now, the hackers are using their skills for patriotic purposes; seeking vengeance for crimes committed against the Palestinian people. Some people are calling them the 'secret warriors'. I like to think of them as the digital warriors of Arabia, in a battleground that transcends the traditional limitations of state borders. What we are witnessing now is just the beginning. One thing is for sure, there's more to come! ) The Star 2000-2001 A premier partner of arabia.com Text accessible online at http://www.star.com.jo/article/0,5596,16_98,00.html ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor, 1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., PMB 176, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/ **************************************************************************