[iwar] [fc:Al.Qaeda.and.Cyber-Terrorism]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-07-18 18:25:29


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Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 18:25:29 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Al.Qaeda.and.Cyber-Terrorism]
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Al Qaeda and Cyber-Terrorism
Date:  Thursday, 18 July 2002

Source:  BusinessWorld
<a href="http://www.ds-osac.org/edb/cyber/news/story.cfm?KEY=8546">http://www.ds-osac.org/edb/cyber/news/story.cfm?KEY=8546>

Story:  A few days ago, President George Bush unveiled to the world a
broad new strategy for confronting terrorism within United States
borders. The 100-page homeland security strategy, which is the first of
its kind in US history, anticipates all forms of terrorist attacks -
including cyber-attacks. Thus, one of its key recommendations is the
upgrading of computer security. It states:

"Our society presents an almost infinite array of potential targets that
can be attacked through a variety of methods. We must be prepared to
adapt as our enemies in the war on terrorism alter their means of
attack." Ron Ross, who heads a new group between the National Security
Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told the
Washington Post that immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center, air traffic controllers brought down every commercial
plane in the air.

"If there had been a cyber-attack at the same time that prevented them
from doing that, " he said, "the magnitude of the event could have been
much greater. A cyber-attack can be launched with fairly limited
resources. It's not science fiction."

Before Sept. 11, 2001, intelligence reports allegedly judged Osama bin
Laden's operatives as "less developed" in their proficiency of
information war as compared to more sophisticated countries.

In January 2002, US forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, found a computer
seized at an al Qaeda office. It contained models of a dam, made with
structural architecture and engineering software, that enabled al Qaeda
to simulate the dam's catastrophic failure.

Another al Qaeda laptop was found to have made multiple visits to a
French site run by the Societe Anonyme, or Anonymous Society. The site
offers a two-volume online "Sabotage Handbook" with sections on tools of
the trade and anti-surveillance methods.

Inevitably, in February 2002, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
issued a memorandum saying that al Qaeda had far more interest in
cyber-terrorism than previously believed.

"We were underestimating the amount of attention [al Qaeda was] paying
to the Internet, " said Roger Cressey, chief of staff of President
Bush's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in a Washington Post
interview. "Now we know they see it as a potential attack vehicle. Al
Qaeda spent more time mapping our vulnerabilities in cyberspace than we
previously thought. An attack is a question of when, not if."

Because of evidences showing marked sophistication of al Qaeda's
tech-savvy skills in cyberspace, US experts believe that "terrorists are
at the threshold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of
bloodshed."

The new threats they anticipate will be the use of computers and the
physical structures they control. Especially since most of the
specialized digital devices that are now being used to control the
brains of American "critical infrastructure" - industrial sectors
essential to the minimum operations of the economy and the government -
are now being connected to the Internet.

The Washington Post explained that by disabling or taking command of the
floodgates in a dam, for example, a cyber-savvy terrorist could use
virtual tools to destroy real-world lives and property. It is believed
that al Qaeda aims to employ those cyber-techniques in conjunction with
"kinetic weapons" such as explosives.

Said Ronald Dick, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure
Protection Center: "The event I fear most is a physical attack in
conjunction with a successful cyber-attack on the responders' 911 system
or on the power grid. ... And that keeps me awake at night."

Unfortunately, this form of attack is a nightmare we experience with
eyes wide open.

Copyright 2002 BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation. All Rights
Reserved.

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