Return-Path: <sentto-279987-5010-1027041838-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Thu, 18 Jul 2002 18:32:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 10030 invoked by uid 510); 19 Jul 2002 01:28:15 -0000 Received: from n37.grp.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.66.105) by all.net with SMTP; 19 Jul 2002 01:28:15 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-5010-1027041838-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.198] by n37.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 19 Jul 2002 01:23:58 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_7_4); 19 Jul 2002 01:23:58 -0000 Received: (qmail 81415 invoked from network); 19 Jul 2002 01:23:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 19 Jul 2002 01:23:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 19 Jul 2002 01:23:58 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g6J1PTc11641 for iwar@onelist.com; Thu, 18 Jul 2002 18:25:29 -0700 Message-Id: <200207190125.g6J1PTc11641@red.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 18:25:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [iwar] [fc:Al.Qaeda.and.Cyber-Terrorism] Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.6 required=5.0 tests=COPYRIGHT_CLAIMED,RISK_FREE,FREE_MONEY,DIFFERENT_REPLY_TO version=2.20 X-Spam-Level: * 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. 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