Lee, this is what you must of heard on the radio.

Searching for the Attackers FBI Investigates Web Attacks; 7 Sites Hit So Far  Whos Next?

Yahoo! was the first of several leading Web sites to be attacked this week by cyber vandals. The FBI is trying to track down the culprits. By Jonathan Dube

Feb. 10  The flurry of attacks that crippled leading Web sites earlier this week appears to have ceased, at least for now. The government reacts to the recent siege on popular Web sites. Rea But Internet companies remain on high alert and many increased security measures today. Federal investigators say they still have no idea who is responsible for the attacks, even though law enforcement agencies across the country have been working on the case since Tuesday.

Monday, the leading independent Web portal, Yahoo!, was attacked and inaccessible for several hours. Tuesday, Buy.com, Amazon.com, eBay and CNN.com were assaulted. And Wednesday, technology site ZDNet and online trading site E*TRADE suffered attacks. The FBI is collecting computer data logs from the victimized companies so they can try to trace the attacks to their source. That could be extremely difficult, however, because its relatively easy for Internet users to fake their identities. New Leads New information surfaced today when several companies reported that the attackers had used their computers to relay the assaults. The Icon Group, an Internet service provider in Indiana, said that 40 percent of all traffic sent from its Web servers was being directed at eBay. They bounced the information from our Web pages to eBay at an enormous rate, Icon owner Bill Walters told ABCNEWS. Envisioneering, a small high-tech consulting firm based in Seaford, N.Y., said hackers also hijacked its computers and used them as a launching pad for the attacks. After six hours, the company was able to end the disruption by programming its computers to turn away any messages from anonymous sources.

Examining Millions of Computers The culprits took over computers at these and other companies and used them to bombard the victims sites with data. Known as denial-of-service attacks, the assaults effectively overloaded Web sites with mock traffic so that real users couldnt access the sites. The Defense Department today ordered an examination of more than a million military and Pentagon computers to make sure none was used to relay the attacks. We just think its a prudent thing to check, said Navy Capt. Craig Quigley, adding that there is no evidence the governments computers were involved. Tracking down the source of the attacks is a daunting task because so many computers are involved and the perpetrators likely hide their paths. What investigators will have to do is track the electronic paths of the attack messages step-by-step  through interfaces and routers and servers until they find the source. Its not impossible to trace, but its difficult, said Ryan Russell, information systems manager for SecurityFocus.com, which monitors Internet security issues. It can be very painful. It really depends on how paranoid the guy is being.

Steep Penalties The task could be even more difficult if the culprits are based outside the United States. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said the FBI has no information so far to indicate that is the case, but investigators wont know for sure until they trace the attacks to their source. Handling international cyber attacks is difficult because either most foreign nations have not recognized it as a crime or have not decided how they will coordinate with other nations to assist in the investigation of cyber criminals, said Matt Yarbrough, a former Justice Department official who prosecuted several major computer hacking cases. Hackers know that using foreign servers and platforms is a great way to hide their identity. If the person responsible lives outside the United States, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act would likely still apply because U.S. computers were used in the attacks, said Ron Dick, chief of the computer investigations at the FBIs National Infrastructure Protection Center. Once the person is caught, prosecutors will then have to not only prove that the culprit was responsible for sending the flood of requests, but that he or she did so with in the intent to willfully or recklessly cause damage. The type of attack suspected is considered a federal crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison for first-time offenders and up to 10 years for repeat offenders. However, the FBI could conceivably slap dozens of charges on the perpetrators because there have been so many attacks. But investigators first will have to catch the attackers. And even investigators admit theres no telling how long that could take  anywhere from one day to five years to never.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/webattacks000210.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 10, 2000

Answers

That's what I heard, Martin. Thanks for posting the info.

Our government has every reason to be nervous about attacks.

How long were hackers at it in Japan - 8 or 9 days, the last week of January into February? They left obscene graffiti on government web sites and also wiped out census and personnel data. Who knows what else....

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), February 11, 2000.