Internet Terrorist Attack...tomorrow??

Russian Computer Expert Predicts Internet Terrorist Attack

Terrorists will paralyze the Internet on August 26, a Russian expert in antivirus programs said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Russian Information Agency Novosti, Aleksandr Gostev from Kaspersky Labs said information on this terrorist attack was published on special websites. He did not elaborate.

First of all, the United States and Western Europe will suffer from the attack, Gostev was quoted by the agency as saying. The head of the labs, Yevgeny Kaspersky, reminded the audience that similar attacks had earlier paralyzed the Internet in South Korea. He added that it would be “impossible” to stop terrorist organizations if they “get down to business”.

The executive director of Dr.Web antivirus lab, Mikhail Bychinsky, quoted by Lenta.ru web agency said he had not heard of such an attack. “I do not believe in mass internet attacks because the main servers are defended, and Kaspersky Labs has been foretelling doomsday for a long time.”

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/08/...ernetend.shtml

If they convince all XP users to download the SP2 update on the same day, that could be a calamity. (It was a big damn download and install)

heh.. well even though I do like (and use) Kaspersky's AV.. I won't be holding my breath waiting for the attack.. I think I would offer 10 to 1 odds against it happening to any such extent that it "crippled" anything.

however, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.. unless it's just boasting by hapless bragards in the first place.

Haven't we heard of this happening before? It sounds like a couple other similar attacks I've heard about in the past. Each time it came and went. Sometimes some systems were taken down, but I've never really seen any significant Internet slowdown except when Melissa and a few other viruses were released and brought traffic to a crawl. Though, firestarter may have a point now that Automatic Update has SP2 for Windows XP. I guess we'll wait and see. Either way, I'm not too worried. My office is protected (as well as can be in today's society) and the only "mission critical" apps I have on the Internet are our website and e-mail. Besides those, if the Internet goes down, won't really affect me too badly (though I won't be able to come on here often if the Internet's slow. ;-)

AJ

When I read something like this I always wonder if Aleksandr Gostev is planning his own internet attack. Maybe I'm just too cynical. I'd be truely amazed if it happens but if it does reading the root cause docs would be interesting,

Cheers,

-D

Personally I would like to know how they go about making these predictions. It really makes me think of a weather report.
"In tommorows forcast, theres an ICMP front massing in the north, and if you look here you can see a pattern of zombies pushing UDP and fragmentation into region. It seems to be orginating from a terrosist cell that is frantically pounding keys and screamming Die Infidels. Now back to Bob with the google group report."

Aug 26th eh? My birthday. The infamous 0 day Eversor virus :). No, seriously. I'm hoping this is just another article in passing and nothing like Melissa as a AO member (avdven) pointed out. What a 22nd b-day gift that would make.

sounds to me like a ploy for people to buy kaspersky ;)

OH no....Elvis and Bigfoot both live on the internet....could this mean their demise has truly drawn nigh?

But seriously....I can see maybe a potential slowdown, but a total disintegration (as forcasted)? Lay off the vodka and get real russkie...

Quote:

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Originally posted here by allenb1963
But seriously....I can see maybe a potential slowdown, but a total disintegration (as forcasted)? Lay off the vodka and get real russkie...

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Ya. We discussed this at work a week or two ago when there weren't any calls coming in. The internet is based on ARPAnet which was developed by the government (military if I remember correctly, but I could be wrong) as a communications device and they designed it so that it would be extremely difficult to bring down. Hopefully it'll stand up to this test (if it turns out to be big) as it has previously.

Regards,
Xierox

1:50 am Aug 26 here in the US alantic coast and counting! Nothing heard of yet! Maybe the Commi Tcp/ip channel hindered the packet tansfer of this virus! lol. This sounds more of a ploy than anything to buy or upgrade to sp2. Really this is just another report based probably on scriptkiddies and the like playing with their collection of buttons or it could be real and when i pass out from the lack of energy at 2am which is in 10min and wake up at 3pm tommorow <lol> I will find out if that is true or not! hmm..munches

Its a load of crap, Taken from full disclosure, poster Feher Tamas




"Subject: [Full-Disclosure] Re: Electronic Jihad on August 26, 04 ??

VirusList.com Virus Alerts & Virus News. Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

************************************************

1. 25th August 2004: Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
2. How to subscribe/unsubscribe
3. Security Rules

****

1. 25th August 2004: Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

A handful of sites are stating that Eugene Kaspersky, founder of
Kaspersky Labs, believes that tomorrow will bring a massive
terrorist attack on the Internet. This is being quoted in a
range of
ways, ranging from factual reporting to citing the story as
an example of
cyber hysteria.

However, Kaspersky is not predicting the end of the Internet
tomorrow - or even in the near future. The story stems from
brief
comments made yesterday at a press conference which was
dedicated to cybercrime and the problems of spam.

At this press conference, Kaspersky commented that the
possibility of terrorists using the Internet as a tool to
attack certain
countries was a reality. As an example, he cited the fact
that a number of Arabic and Hebrew language websites
contained an announcement of an 'electronic jihad' against
Israel, to start on 26th August 2004.

In an interview today, Kaspersky stressed that such
information was not necessarily trustworthy. 'We don't know
who is behind these
statements.' He went on to clarify: 'It's not the first time
the term
'electronic jihad' has been used. We've seen this before,
with the focus
being on sending racist emails, and defacing and hacking
Israeli web
sites. But it is the first time I have seen sites
encouraging the use
of Internet attacks against one country as a form of terrorism.'

'As we've already stated many times in the past, it would be
easy enough to use a network of infected computers to launch
such an
attack. We saw the impact that Sasser, Mydoom and Slammer
had, on the Internet, businesses and organisations. Just
imagine if such an attack was directed at one country or one
critical point in the
infrastructure of the Internet. Computers are a tool - and
just like any tool, they can be used or misused.'

Kaspersky emphasised that the likelihood of a massive attack
directed against Israeli institutions tomorrow is low.
However, he
believes that Pandora's box has now been opened. Hackers and
virus writers can be motivated by a range of factors: money,
curiosity, or political conviction. But whatever their
motivation, the insecure
nature of the Internet and weak security precautions offer a
wealth of
opportunities. 'Maybe it won't be tomorrow, or the day after
tomorrow - but sooner or later, terrorists will be using the
Internet as another
weapon in their arsenal.'

**

2. How to subscribe/unsubscribe

If you would like to subscribe to other news blocks or
to unsubscribe from this news block, you can do so by visiting
http://www.viruslist.com/eng/maillist.html

If you experience any problems with this procedure, please
contact us at:
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3. Security Rules

To avert unsanctioned attempts to distribute "false" or
"forged" email news messages under the guise of Kaspersky
Labs please note that actual Kaspersky Labs news messages
are sent only in plain text format and never under any
circumstances include file attachments. If you receive an
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circumstances open it but rather forward it to Kaspersky
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****

Kaspersky Lab News Agent

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HA i wish there one

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Hiei
HA i wish there one

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yeah we all love to see pain and suffering throughout the world. dumbass

Quote:

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will paralyze the Internet on August 26

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Muhahaha...
A mighty bold statement from the russkies.

In any case what about all the China, Europe, USA, and Israel defacement "wars" or acts of "terrorism" on each other's corporate and governmental sites of these countries because of "<insert CNN scaremonger mind-altering tactics useing hype & play-of-words>" in the past?

After each of these guys begin to calm down you all know what happends next... they each once agian proceed with their normal routines of attempting to find any target, in any area of the globe, for no other reason other than the fact that its online. This is a weekly thing so why isn't this ever considered "an attempt to paralyze the Internet". :p

Maybe they will get that president guy who 'invented' the internet to tell them the secrets of how it can be turned off for a day.

We are o.k.

George bush will just nuke the shyte out of em if they even attempt to use his coined phrase terrorism.

Kaspersky Labs have done this before, there always predicting doomsday, I think he wants to be a modern day Michel de Nostredamas. Maybe he could write a book with all these prophecies in and make his money that way.

I dunno how viable it is to take down the entire internet, wasnt it designed so that it could carry on limping allong despite all sections not working? a massive co-ordinated attack i suppose could take down the internet, but yea...

i2c

Quote:

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sounds to me like a ploy for people to buy kaspersky

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Sales are down.. need another very news worthy worm.. no bugger that idea.... someone has a new ace firewall up their....ahhh.... sleeve..yes sleeve.. and they need to promote it....

getting time for the big companies to drag out their 2005 offials..sry offerings.. i wonder who will be frontlining it in the aussi media for a lame cat 1 virus this year?

time for the system to be cleaned out.. the netsky crew have been rehashing the same **** for to long.. the sobig writer jsut can't get it up again.. yep.. time for another bigun.. time to boost sales..big boost..

blah blah blah.. crap

social engineering is still the best way to bring down the internet.. holes can be patched.. worms blocked.. but stupidity rulez

cheers

BTW: 26th Aug ..23:00hrs EST in OZ..(13:00GMT) and so far nothing realy ba...............

well todays the 26th of August and apparently nothing happened so why are we worrying about a prediction anyway it's prediction not actual fact!

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Hiei
HA i wish there one

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I am amazed by the depth of this statement.........................

Simply amazed...........


The AP system exists for smacktards like you.


:o