CYBER JIHAD FURTHER RESEARCHED

As we all know there was no cyber jihad on Sunday, November 11, 2007. My sources never said there would be, but according to DEBKAfile it was something everyone was fearing and of course waiting to happen. I think we have to take a further look at some sites that claim to have contact with al Qaeda message boards and are able to have first hand knowledge. Keep in mind that a lot of what we think is being said or leaked is only for the sake of fear. In that sense al Qaeda succeeded. SC Magazine, Frank Washkuch Jr. writes: McAfee told organizations not to lose sleep over reports that al Qaeda would target Western websites in a mass-cyberattack this Sunday. DEBKA-file, a Jerusalem-based website known for coverage of Middle Eastern military and intelligence issues, reported last month that al Qaeda's cyberattackers would target Western, Jewish and Israeli websites, as well as those of Muslims who do not fall in line with the terrorist group's fundamentalist viewpoint, beginning on Sunday. McAfee Avert Labs researcher Francois Paget cited cyber-terror warnings in August 2004 and November 2006 that never materialized, but said he blogged about the specter of cyber-jihad because news stories and rumors were circulating on the internet. Paget, who found a cyber-jihad program on the web and confirmed that it can launch basic DDoS attacks, said the application indicates that terrorist groups are interested in cyberattacks, but lack the technical know-how to launch a significant one effectively. “I wrote this blog entry to demonstrate that at least one terrorist ring is interested in malware. But it seems to me, they have not reached the technical level of some criminal groups, for now. In this case, no fast-flux network was involved, no complex command and control protocol was committed, no worldwide botnet was created,” he said. “They are years behind. Shutting down the distribution stopped the attack before it started.” DEKBA-file has reportedly published wildly inaccurate stories, such as a 2003 account that predicted the day Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction against American forces. Craig Schmugar, threat research manager at McAfee Avert Labs, told SCMagazineUS.com today that the attack application is not unusual. “The tool that some other people have associated with the DDoS attack is nothing special. Based on that information, this seems to be one of those run-of-the-mill [devices],” he said. “We have seen articles in the past warning of attacks like this, and nothing has happened.” Officials have warned that al Qaeda could use the internet as an attack vector, but warnings of cyber-terrorism, such as a December 2006 advisory that the group would attack U.S. financial interests in retaliation for the treatment of prisoners at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, never materialized. Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute, said Monday on the organization's Internet Storm Center diary that he did not think a mass cyberattack would occur. “So, in short, stay calm, focus on best practices and you don't have to do anything special on [Sunday]. If your systems are secure, they will be fine,” he said. “If they are not secure, then they will get hacked no matter if it's cyber-jihad or the script kiddie from next door.” Tags:IT Security Training Email Security Government Analyst Reports & Industry Surveys Emerging Threats Lawbreakers & Cybercrime Groundbreakers Company:McAfee

CYBER JIHAD

Qaeda Declares Cyber Jihad on the West DEBKAfile "In a special Internet announcement in Arabic, picked up by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, Osama bin Laden’s followers announced Monday the launching of Electronic Jihad. On Sunday, November 11, al Qaeda’s electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites. On Day One, they will test their skills against 15 targeted sites and expand the operation from day to day thereafter until hundreds of thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold numbers of anti-Muslim sites." It seems as though we just can't get ahead. Do we really believe that al Qaeda did not know about the leak with SITE long before the video leak to the White House. I think our naiveness is what causes us to remain on step behind. My sources told me the same day the video was released that there would be a black out. "DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that, shortly after the first announcement, some of al Qaeda’s own Web sites went blank, apparently crashed by the American intelligence computer experts tracking them. The next day, Oct. 30, they were up again, claiming their Islamic fire walls were proof against infidel assault...In effect al Qaeda is retaliating against Western intelligence agencies’ tactics, which detect new terrorist sites and zap them as soon as they appear. Until now, the jihadists kept dodging the assault by throwing up dozens of new sites simultaneously. This kept the trackers busy and ensured that some of the sites survived, while empty pages were promptly replaced...Now Bin Laden’s cyber legions are fighting back. The electronic war they have declared could cause considerable trouble on the world’s Internet."