Re: Kaspersky Labs says Electronic Jihad on the Internet quite

[Jay D. Dyson]

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On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Steve wrote:

> The Russian news agency, Novosti, has reported Kaspersky Labs has warned
> about a large-scale virus attack on the Internet that might be delivered
> by Islamic terrorists on August 26.
>
> http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4759214&startrow=11&date=2004-08-24&do_alert=0
>
> Anyone have any more information on this?

If I may be so bold, this is nonsense. First off, any
ankle-biting scriptkiddy knows that network outages do not evoke a sense
of terror. Such events evoke nothing but annoyance.

Secondly, any such network-wide outage would require the DoS'ing
or destruction of all network root servers. That's been attempted before
and was a spectacular failure from the perspective of the attacker.

Finally, Islamic terrorists do NOT trust high technology vectors
for their attacks. Their "smart bombs" are suicide bombers (as used
across the globe); their "torpedoes" (like what hit the USS Cole) are
bomb-laden boats with suicide captains; their "guided missiles" on 9/11
were our own aircraft with suicide pilots. The pattern here is obvious:
their attacks are either low-tech or no-tech. This does not give them
much credibility in terms of "cyber warfare" (sic).

If you ask me, I'd say the Russian news agency in question either
has a technologically-ignorant or positively incompetent reporter who's
been hoodwinked by some fast-talking scriptkiddies.

- -Jay

( ( _______
)) )) .-"There's always time for a good cup of coffee"-. >====<--.
C|~~|C|~~| (>----- Jay D. Dyson -- jdyson@treachery.net -----<) | = |-'
`--' `--' `------ Stick around; I may need an alibi. ------' `------'

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[Jérôme ATHIAS]

In-Reply-To: <20040825150038.9D37AB718@xprdmailfe18.nwk.excite.c om>

I have 2 quotes for that :

1)-------------------------------------------------------
VirusList.com Virus Alerts & Virus News. Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

************************************************

1. 25th August 2004: Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
2. How to subscribe/unsubscribe
3. Security Rules

****

1. 25th August 2004: Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

A handful of sites are stating that Eugene Kaspersky, founder of
Kaspersky Labs, believes that tomorrow will bring a massive
terrorist attack on the Internet. This is being quoted in a
range of
ways, ranging from factual reporting to citing the story as
an example of
cyber hysteria.

However, Kaspersky is not predicting the end of the Internet
tomorrow - or even in the near future. The story stems from
brief
comments made yesterday at a press conference which was
dedicated to cybercrime and the problems of spam.

At this press conference, Kaspersky commented that the
possibility of terrorists using the Internet as a tool to
attack certain
countries was a reality. As an example, he cited the fact
that a number of Arabic and Hebrew language websites
contained an announcement of an 'electronic jihad' against
Israel, to start on 26th August 2004.

In an interview today, Kaspersky stressed that such
information was not necessarily trustworthy. 'We don't know
who is behind these
statements.' He went on to clarify: 'It's not the first time
the term
'electronic jihad' has been used. We've seen this before,
with the focus
being on sending racist emails, and defacing and hacking
Israeli web
sites. But it is the first time I have seen sites
encouraging the use
of Internet attacks against one country as a form of terrorism.'

'As we've already stated many times in the past, it would be
easy enough to use a network of infected computers to launch
such an
attack. We saw the impact that Sasser, Mydoom and Slammer
had, on the Internet, businesses and organisations. Just
imagine if such an attack was directed at one country or one
critical point in the
infrastructure of the Internet. Computers are a tool - and
just like any tool, they can be used or misused.'

Kaspersky emphasised that the likelihood of a massive attack
directed against Israeli institutions tomorrow is low.
However, he
believes that Pandora's box has now been opened. Hackers and
virus writers can be motivated by a range of factors: money,
curiosity, or political conviction. But whatever their
motivation, the insecure
nature of the Internet and weak security precautions offer a
wealth of
opportunities. 'Maybe it won't be tomorrow, or the day after
tomorrow - but sooner or later, terrorists will be using the
Internet as another
weapon in their arsenal.'

**

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If you experience any problems with this procedure, please
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webmaster@kaspersky.com

3. Security Rules

To avert unsanctioned attempts to distribute "false" or
"forged" email news messages under the guise of Kaspersky
Labs please note that actual Kaspersky Labs news messages
are sent only in plain text format and never under any
circumstances include file attachments. If you receive an
email not meeting these strict guidelines, please under no
circumstances open it but rather forward it to Kaspersky
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contents can be examined.


****

Kaspersky Lab News Agent

-----
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2)-------------------------------------------------------
According to Nostradamus, in the middle of the year 2004, a comet will come screaming across the sky. It will explode near the coast of Greece after scorching southern France and central Italy. And that is just the beginning of massive destruction and war
. The battles and political intrigues are described in detail.

choose yours :p
Best regards to the good posters of admins of the list.