Specifications

FBI Asks “How Aware Are You of
the Dangers of the ‘Net?”
By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The
Examiner, Beaumont TX; Radio and TV Show Host
Iwilsker(at)apcug.net
Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission
for publication by APCUG member groups
WEBSITES:
www.fbi.gov/page2/nov07/cyberspeech110607.html
www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mueller110607.htm
www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4723
http://housecall.antivirus.com
http://safety.live.com
www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/45386-1.html
This is not the column that I had originally prepared
for publication this week. As regular readers may
know, I frequently lecture on computer security topics,
and have written numerous columns on security topics
over the years. While many of us surf the net oblivious
to the online threats that face us, many others are
aware of the threats, and sadly, many have learned
of the threats the hard way. The online threats that
we face on a regular basis have not been lost on our
federal government leadership.
FBI Director Mueller recently gave a speech at Penn
State University where he warned about the cyber
threats that we all face. He started his speech talking
about the recent World Series, where the tickets for
the Rockies’ home games were initially unavailable
online because some hacker had made the website
inaccessible. He referenced the cyber attack against
the country of
Estonia last spring,
where a coordinated
attack from
computers around
the world, “… shut
down banks and
emergency phone
lines, gas stations
and grocery stores,
newspapers and
television stations,
even the prime minister’s ofce.” Director Mueller
went on to explain the effect of a similar attack here
in the United States, “If we lose the Internet, we do
not simply lose the ability to e-mail or to surf the web.
We lose access to our data. We lose our connectivity.
We lose our intellectual property. We lose our security.
What happens when the so-called ‘Invisible Man’
locks us out of our own homes, our ofces, and our
information?” This brings up the question, “…given
the growing presence of the web in our personal and
professional lives, how aware are you of the risks of
attack via the Internet?”
In his speech, Director Mueller was poignant in
describing the situation that is facing us online. There
were several key points in his speech that require
some additional discussion. One point he made
was, “The growing intersection of terror and the
web.” He described the case of Younis Tsouli, who
went by the screen name “Terrorist 007”, who was
an al Qaeda webmaster. Taking advantage of most
of the contemporary online threats that we all face,
Tsouli broke into servers to get the data bandwidth
he needed to carry out his nefarious schemes, and
used “phishing” (authentic appearing but counterfeit
websites to steal personal information), to steal credit
card and personal information. With these purloined
credit card numbers and personal information, he
managed to purchase over $3 million worth of deadly
supplies and equipment for terrorists. Tsouli also
created a website “You bomb it” patterned after the
popular “YouTube”, which he hoped would become
a centralized website for terrorists to exchange
information. Director Mueller explained that local
internet service providers could unknowingly run
a server that is helping terrorists, and that we, as
the innocent victims of identity theft, could end up
nancing terrorist activities.
Another threat facing us, according to Director
Mueller, is “The rise of bots”, where networks of
computers are unknowingly taken over for nefarious
purposes. One of the most common ways of taking
over a computer is to plant a type of Trojan on the
computer referred to as a “zombie”, which effectively
makes the infected computer a zombie under the
control of persons unknown. According to recent
security statements, some “bots” consist of over a
million infected computers. It is well known in cyber
security circles that the many variants of the Storm
Worm, which is still spreading to infect countless
computers, mostly through email attachments, has