Re: Terroristic attacks today

["Shoten" <shoten () starpower net>]

> Has anyone seen, or does anyone anticipate any security threats on the
> Internet or Internet-based attacks on any given targets in connection
> with this mornings terroristic attacks on the World Trade Center and the
> Pentagon?

Yes...I would say there's an enormous likelihood that sites and internet
infrastructure related to or affiliated with arabic and muslim sites or
organizations will come under attack.  There will be defacements, hacks, and
DoS.  Frankly, I must confess to being weak enough to feel a bit of
temptation to join in.

> I hadn't considered the possibility, assuming that parties that would
> fly planes into buildings aren't likely to be interested in writing
> viruses. We did have one customer voluntarily disable their Internet
> connection for the next 24-hours out of concern for "viruses". They said
> something about a warning from the FBI. The FBI's website is apparantly
> unreachable (or overloaded) at the moment.

I would consider it highly unlikely, as there is no public access to the
internet whatsoever in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and they are
overwhelmingly the main candidate for the nation-state most closely
affiliated with this event.  As for Al Qaeda (Osama bin Laden's group), they
may have different plans, but again, this has not been shown to be one of
their strengths.  I would assume that the pool of individuals from which he
recruits are not typically super-computer-savvy as a whole, despite what the
press says about steganography and crypto being used by them.


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