Pro-Islamic Hackers Gear Up for Cyber War, Experts Say

Zardon · Oct 29, 2002, 07:08 PM

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pro-Islamic hackers are on the frontline of a potential new cyber war after the end of a cease-fire by "hacktivists" and virus designers that followed the September 11 attacks on the United States, Internet experts say.

Pro-Islamic hackers are escalating attacks against countries backing the U.S. war on terror and its campaign against Iraq, while the "Bugbear" worm and last week's strike on the Internet backbone signal that cyber villains are again on the prowl.

London-based computer security firm mi2g said on Tuesday that October had already qualified as the worst month for overt digital attacks since its records began in 1995, with an estimated 16,559 attacks carried out on systems and Web Sites.

The firm which advises banks, insurance and reinsurance firms on security said politically motivated attacks had risen "sharply."

"We have noticed that more and more Islamic interest hacking groups are beginning to rally under a common anti-U.S., UK, Australia, anti-India and anti-Israeli agenda," it said.

According to the zone-H database, an independent site which monitors hacker activity, politically motivated Web Site defacements make up around 11 percent of the total.

Most hacking is attributable to "script kiddies" from Brazil to Germany "bragging and strutting," said Dean White, the SANS Institute Internet Storm Center coordinator for the Asia Pacific.

But real-life events like the September 11 anniversary, simmering violence in Israel, bombs in the Philippines or the October 12 blasts that killed 180 people on Indonesia's island of Bali all could be expected to serve as inspirations on the Web.

further details in the Driverheaven forum

Zardon · Oct 29, 2002, 07:09 PM

We were saying we have to be ready and we have to be prepared, it's been quiet for too long, there's going to be something around the corner," White told Reuters.

Of the hacking groups active in October, three were pro-Islamic, according to mi2g.

One of them is the "UNIX Security Guards" (USG), a "macro" hacking group formed in May this year and believed to be composed of other smaller entities ranging from "EgyptianFighter," to hackers from Muslim former Soviet republics and Morocco.

USG increased the number of attacks it carried out in September tenfold to 207 from 21 in August.

By October 27, USG boasted 1,511 attacks for that month alone, mi2g said. The zone-H database notes that most of USG's attacks involve mass defacements -- carried out through cracking virtual hosters supporting dozens of Web Sites.

The other active groups are "FBH," or "Federal Bureau of Hackers," thought to be based in Pakistan, and "TheBuGz," also believed to be mainly Pakistani.

On hundreds of U.S., British and other Web Sites defaced by data attacks, the groups have placed messages demanding "freedom" for the Palestinians and opposing a war in Iraq.

"USA I think that you are all about to be some war criminals. UK you are a slave to USA," USG wrote on one site.

"Hey, wanna know what America and UK do 2 Iraqi kids? Take a look...they bomb them," FBH wrote on a Virgin mobile telephone ring tone download site recently.

The rise in pro-Islamic hacking coincides with last week's unprecedented "distributed denial of service" attack on nine of the 13 root DNS servers that form the Internet's spine.

Washington has downplayed the likelihood of "cyberterrorism."

But experts said, whoever was responsible, it highlighted the vulnerability of infrastructure to "Command and Control" intrusions or reconnaissance probes that could affect power transmission, nuclear plants, water storage or communications.

"In recent months, information of this type has been ferreted via the Internet. This has been traced back to IP addresses in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Indonesia," mi2g said.

Warren_15 · Oct 29, 2002, 09:37 PM

hmm...not surprised. Ramadan starts next month, any many terrorist plots have been uncovered. Looks like we better fire up our firewalls

Smoothdrive · Oct 30, 2002, 11:08 AM

I hate the world..we're all soooo smart but we can't even engage in normal dialogue to resolve our differences..we'ld rather hack and attack..look how far we came in thousand of years..from hitting each other with sticks and stones to attacking each others computers and blowing each other up..aren't we a fun species ?

FuNsTeR · Oct 30, 2002, 01:52 PM

you'll find the bulk of the attacks will come from the Turks as they seem very well clued up about hacking , making Viruses, Ddos attacks ... they have made irc a war zone

So-Unreal · Oct 30, 2002, 03:38 PM

sad sad sad (man now I wish I had a hardware firewall that would help more then this Norton Firewall 2003) ...(its good but its not hardware)

Murdock · Nov 1, 2002, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by So-Unreal
sad sad sad (man now I wish I had a hardware firewall that would help more then this Norton Firewall 2003) ...(its good but its not hardware)

We in the west are better hackers than the extremly islamTurks or other extemic Moslims
Kill the Digital bastarts

sint@x · Nov 1, 2002, 10:39 PM

wish our guys would stand up and try to get them

Oct 29, 2002, 07:08 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Pro-Islamic Hackers Gear Up for Cyber War, Experts Say SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pro-Islamic hackers are on the frontline of a potential new cyber war after the end of a cease-fire by "hacktivists" and virus designers that followed the September 11 attacks on the United States, Internet experts say. Pro-Islamic hackers are escalating attacks against countries backing the U.S. war on terror and its campaign against Iraq, while the "Bugbear" worm and last week's strike on the Internet backbone signal that cyber villains are again on the prowl. London-based computer security firm mi2g said on Tuesday that October had already qualified as the worst month for overt digital attacks since its records began in 1995, with an estimated 16,559 attacks carried out on systems and Web Sites. The firm which advises banks, insurance and reinsurance firms on security said politically motivated attacks had risen "sharply." "We have noticed that more and more Islamic interest hacking groups are beginning to rally under a common anti-U.S., UK, Australia, anti-India and anti-Israeli agenda," it said. According to the zone-H database, an independent site which monitors hacker activity, politically motivated Web Site defacements make up around 11 percent of the total. Most hacking is attributable to "script kiddies" from Brazil to Germany "bragging and strutting," said Dean White, the SANS Institute Internet Storm Center coordinator for the Asia Pacific. But real-life events like the September 11 anniversary, simmering violence in Israel, bombs in the Philippines or the October 12 blasts that killed 180 people on Indonesia's island of Bali all could be expected to serve as inspirations on the Web. further details in the Driverheaven forum

Oct 29, 2002, 09:37 PM	#3
Warren_15 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: The 'States Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	hmm...not surprised. Ramadan starts next month, any many terrorist plots have been uncovered. Looks like we better fire up our firewalls __________________ Asus A7V266 AMD XP 2400+ 768mb Corsair PC2100 Ram Enlight 7200 Desktop Case Lite-On 52x32x52x Burner Lite-On 16x DVD ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb Linksys Etherfast 10/100 SB Audigy

Oct 30, 2002, 11:08 AM	#4
Smoothdrive Foolish Genius Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 455 Rep Power: 0	I hate the world..we're all soooo smart but we can't even engage in normal dialogue to resolve our differences..we'ld rather hack and attack..look how far we came in thousand of years..from hitting each other with sticks and stones to attacking each others computers and blowing each other up..aren't we a fun species ? __________________ GA-7VRXP, AMD2000+, 256MB PC-2700 DDR, Radeon 8500LE, 2x Maxtor 740 (40GB) stripe set, AGNeovo X-150.

Oct 30, 2002, 01:52 PM	#5
FuNsTeR Caledonian and Proud Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Darkest Ayrshire Posts: 1,305 Rep Power: 88 System Specs	you'll find the bulk of the attacks will come from the Turks as they seem very well clued up about hacking , making Viruses, Ddos attacks ... they have made irc a war zone __________________ "They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

Oct 29, 2002, 07:09 PM	Thread Starter #2
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	We were saying we have to be ready and we have to be prepared, it's been quiet for too long, there's going to be something around the corner," White told Reuters. Of the hacking groups active in October, three were pro-Islamic, according to mi2g. One of them is the "UNIX Security Guards" (USG), a "macro" hacking group formed in May this year and believed to be composed of other smaller entities ranging from "EgyptianFighter," to hackers from Muslim former Soviet republics and Morocco. USG increased the number of attacks it carried out in September tenfold to 207 from 21 in August. By October 27, USG boasted 1,511 attacks for that month alone, mi2g said. The zone-H database notes that most of USG's attacks involve mass defacements -- carried out through cracking virtual hosters supporting dozens of Web Sites. The other active groups are "FBH," or "Federal Bureau of Hackers," thought to be based in Pakistan, and "TheBuGz," also believed to be mainly Pakistani. On hundreds of U.S., British and other Web Sites defaced by data attacks, the groups have placed messages demanding "freedom" for the Palestinians and opposing a war in Iraq. "USA I think that you are all about to be some war criminals. UK you are a slave to USA," USG wrote on one site. "Hey, wanna know what America and UK do 2 Iraqi kids? Take a look...they bomb them," FBH wrote on a Virgin mobile telephone ring tone download site recently. The rise in pro-Islamic hacking coincides with last week's unprecedented "distributed denial of service" attack on nine of the 13 root DNS servers that form the Internet's spine. Washington has downplayed the likelihood of "cyberterrorism." But experts said, whoever was responsible, it highlighted the vulnerability of infrastructure to "Command and Control" intrusions or reconnaissance probes that could affect power transmission, nuclear plants, water storage or communications. "In recent months, information of this type has been ferreted via the Internet. This has been traced back to IP addresses in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Indonesia," mi2g said.

Oct 30, 2002, 03:38 PM	#6
So-Unreal DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 56 Rep Power: 0	sad sad sad (man now I wish I had a hardware firewall that would help more then this Norton Firewall 2003) ...(its good but its not hardware)

Nov 1, 2002, 10:39 PM	#8
sint@x DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Somewhere in world of 1's and 0's Posts: 172 Rep Power: 0	wish our guys would stand up and try to get them