From: etomcat at freemail.hu (Feher Tamas)
Subject: Re: Electronic Jihad on August 26, 04 ??

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

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

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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.'

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Kaspersky Lab News Agent

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