Lebanese new

Cyberwar expands to claim first US victim

Ranwa Yehia Daily Star staff Arab hackers have targeted the website of a US company that conducts business with Israel B- the first such attack since the Arab-Israeli cyberwar began three weeks ago.

The US company, Lucent Technologies, was attacked on Thursday by thousands of hackers at the same time. Although the company confirmed it was targeted, it said company security workers were able to fend off the attack before it brought the site down.

The attack came only a few days after an FBI warning that the Arab-Israeli cyberwar could Bspill overB to the United States. The Lucent website was listed among 13 sites posted on the UNITY website, a site encouraging Arabs to target Israeli sites. Over the weekend at least six Israeli sites were hacked, among them a commercial firm for strategic consulting, project planning, and website design; a commercial medical company; an Israeli student association; a college; and a religious high school.

The hackers attacking the Israeli sites identified themselves as BGforce Pakistan,B which is most probably the same group that hacked an American pro-Israeli lobby group, Aipac, last week. The attack on the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee was the first cyberwar case to be comprehensively reported by major US media outlets. Meanwhile, the Israeli site, www.wizel.com, that initiated the cyberwar three weeks ago by listing Hizbullah and Palestinian sites, has been removed. However, a group calling itself BIsrael HackersB launched a website on Sunday that has similar functions as www.wizel.com.

Entitled BHackers of Israel Unite,B the site encourages Bthe army of Israeli soldiers on the netB to Bsearch and destroy all of the Arab sites on the net.B The site, which had received 214 visitors by early Sunday evening, tells Israeli supporters that all they need is Ba computer, a shell, and revenge.B The sites listed to be targeted include the Palestinian Authority site; HizbullahBs Al-Manar Television site; a Palestinian information site, www.sis.gov.ps; IranBs Islamic Republic News Agency site; and a Jordanian portal site, www.albawaba.com. The Israeli siteBs front page posts a picture of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat holding sticks of dynamite. Below is a picture of Palestinian children holding guns with UnicefBs logo on top. Another animated picture shows Arafat repeatedly ducking target attacks aimed at him.

The site, www.israelhackers. cjb.net, is trying to coordinate attacks based on ICQ channels. The Israeli Army website was again downed for at least five days, despite seeking AT&T to host it after it was downed by Arab hackers. Israeli site administrators are kept busy protecting sites from Arab hackers. The Israeli Army site, for example, keeps going on and off, indicating that it is being attacked and then reloaded by site administrators. The Israeli sites that were down on Sunday afternoon included the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. BWeBre expecting the battle to heat up from our side in the next few days,B a UNITY staffer told The Daily Star. BOur cyberwar wonBt stop until all the anti-Zionist sites attacked are restored,B he said. New UNITY attack sites include the following: http://unity.globalredirect.com and http://www.explode.to/unity.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/06_11_00/art2.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 06, 2000