Slashdot Mirror
Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow
Kobalt writes "A few news services are reporting that Russian computer expert, Aleksandr Gostev from Kaspersky Labs, has predicted that a large chunk of the Internet will be shut down tomorrow by cyber terrorists."
as long as google dosen't go down we can live on the caches!!!!!
Loading Please Wait....
You mean I might actually get to go outside and go to the beach and soak up a few rays??? Jeez what a horrid loss....
Could they be a bit clearer on which TZ they're basing the attack? For me, it's already "tomorrow" in Japan.
How can they know? unless they are somehow involved.....
Otherwise, what am I going to do all day tomorrow at work!
He just wants to sell you his anti-virus!
Would this have anything to do with the 2 Russian airliners that crashed yesterday?
Marvin knew: "Think of a number, any number..."
I smell the work of the GOP trying to get the geek vote.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Can someone seriously tell me what a "cyber terrorist" is? Is it someone who makes threats using electronic media? Is it someone who defaces web sites? Is it someone who shuts down the Internet? Are the latter two here really forms of terrorism? I don't really know of anyone who is "terrorized" by defaced web sites and high lag times, but I could be wrong.
Why bother.
How will I be so productive at work ?
oh... wait..
My blog
Evil bits! There is still time to mend your ways! Repent, evil bits, for the hour of your doom is at hand!
SAILING MISHAP
I predict that tomorrow this prediction will be useless and untrue. Signed, the not so AC nobody
Fourty-two!
From Mosnews""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."
What kind of attack, what 'special websites', what equipment or service is being attacked, what vulnerabilities does it exploit, etc, ad nasuem.
Cripes, give us some sort of information, is the sky falling or isn't it?
This article has recently been linked from Slashdot. Please keep an eye on the page history for errors or vandalism.
We're going to slashdot the entire internet?
Chris Knight is my hero.
SANS internet storm center has a note on this. They have seen increased scriptkiddie activity possibly leading up to this. Started on Sunday. Also read the note on the "drag-n-drop" exploit that is now seen in the wild and only requires you to move the scrollbar for it to install....several scanners are not picking up some of the new binaries being installed.
Armed with this foreknowledge, what can we do besides wait and see what happens? One of TFAs stated that there's really nothing we can do to defend against the attack, so what's the point in worrying about it? Either it will happen, and folks in the US and Western Europe will be inconvenienced, or it won't happen, and we'll all have worried for nothing. At this point, it seems like this knowledge, while nice to have, is somewhat useless.
Also, why tomorrow? Wouldn't it send a more powerful message to wait a few weeks and do it on September 11th?
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
What a load of 1t08vwnw8t NO CARRIER
NO! don't let them anywhere NEAR the internet's power switch!
Summary: nothing to see here. Move along.
The sun may or may not go nova this week.
I may or may not get myself a real girlfriend.
there may or may not be dupes posted on our beloved
Kevin Mitnick may or may not like chicken.
You may or may not get that raise (job, for those unemployed) this week.
It's easy to make
wget -m http://*
Describing theinquirer.net as a 'news service.'
Has anyone else noticed a lot of automated (presumably) login attempts for the users 'root', 'test' and 'guest' over SSH?
I never used to get this, and now I seem to get dozens of them every day.
I wonder if this is related to the so called "dooms-day" tomorrow.
Productivity tomorrow is expected to rise to levels not seen since the 1980's.
But I can predict with 100% certainty that my eyes will meltdown in their sockets if they don't change the IT section color scheme soon.
Kaspersky says his comments have been misrepresented.
A coordinated online strike against Internet servers by terrorists, dubbed "electronic jihad," may or may not strike this week, security experts said.
Well, I may or may not be concerned then.
Moo.
e-had - a purely electronic holy war
i-had - much like an e-had, but it's portable
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I was supposed to do a major network re-configuration tomorrow, damn, now I'll get the blame for bringing down the whole internet!
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I noticed a lot of my favourite overseas sites have been slow to load, while others, located in North America, load normally...
Just an impression though. I did not notice any more lag than usual in the online games I play
See also this VMyths posting to theFull Disclosure mailing list
Spoiler Alert: It starts off pretty cool, but really drags in the middle. The ending is horrible.
I guess I'll have to stay up extra late tonight then in order to finish downloading the entire Internet onto my laptop...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Kaspersky labs says they were misquoted. Quoting from a mail from kaspersky labs themselves (as found in a repost on the NTBugtraq mailing list):
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 as 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.'
Why couldn't he have said this months ago? I could have gotten another cushy job protecting computers against doomsday. Much like i did during the whole y2k fiasco.
Mhhh... Employment by scaring the shit out of other people..... tasty
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
While it could certainly cause serious damage to businesses who depend on the Internet, it in no way evokes terror in people's hearts and minds. The purpose of terrorism is to coerce through terror of random violence. I'm sorry, but the threat of having a portion of the Internet shut down does not fill my heart with terror.
It's a slap in the face to all those who have died on September 11 and all other victims of terrorism around the world.
Not to mention the extremely disturbing precedent being set here. The word "terrorist" is becoming similar to how the word "communist" was used during the Cold War. I.e., a term you apply to anybody you don't like in order to dehumanize them. I find it sickening.
Not sure how this relates to any jihad, though.
When's the Republican National Convention? Maybe this is somehow related to CrimethInc's talk?
Doesn't XP Service Pack 2 finally make its way onto Windows Auto-update tomorrow?
Don't Crease the Weasel!
Don't jump to conclusions too quickly... The chances that somebody, somewhere on the planet is experiencing Internet-related problems on the same day as this was announced is pretty much 100%. It just so happens that you're the guy with the problems. Doesn't necessarily mean anything.
It's what happens if you put your swimsuit in the dryer for too long on high heat.
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
At about 12:15pm on the US east coast, it should be "tomorrow" soon in the Eastern continents. I'll keep a watch on the stats and flip the switch if necessary :P
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
If the Internet survives, then you can use the freeze-dried strawberries for dacquiris and margaritas.
The sky, she is falling! The sky, she is falling!
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
How many 'attacks'(defaced websites, DOS attacks, etc) are attempted daily, regardless of what day of the year it is? 100, 1000,10000, more? Gostev is just making a guess at the success of tomorrows attacks. Cyber terrorists indeed, the day i become afraid and terrorized because of a DOS attack or a webpage getting defaced is the day I deserve to be beaten to a bloody pulp.
Do we get last post pissing contests now as well? :)
i see no reason why that's necessarily an either/or proposition, bladernr. after all, asking candidates 3 months before the election to opine on something is more or less begging for spin, isn't it?
ed
Sounds like I should put in for a vacation day, before the boss sees this. ;)
"Sometimes a man's gotta do what a woman wouldn't consider." - Red Green
... will be the ones who either save the day, or let us all go down. Remember the similar recent incident? Akamai was in the center of it. If Akamai goes down, forget Google.
Simpy
slash-had - A holy war in a painful dark khaki color scheme.
Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
"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.""
Sounds like Kaspersky Labs is doing a bit of guerilla marketing on their own. "Subscribe to our pay sites and see when this 'attack' will take place !"
I wonder if a 21st century chicken little would have sold newsletters instead of running around the barnyard.
This is just another PNAC conspiracy. Every time Bush and/or Ashcroft scares people into thinking terrorists are about to wreak havoc, the good little sheeple promptly bend over and accept new legislation that further erodes civil liberties. Bill Gates being the "generous" GOP donor that he is, has now joined in. If they scare enough people into thinking that cyberterrorism is about to destroy the Internet, the good little sheeple will promptly bend over and accept Microsoft(tm) Patented(tm) DRM(tm) across everything.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Donald Rumsfeld seems to fit into your progression.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I mean.. if /. gets taken down by this... I can get more work done finally! ;)
You could always lock yourself out.
From the eweek article: "A coordinated online strike against Internet servers by terrorists, dubbed "elec tronic jihad," may or may not strike this week, security experts said." In related news, the earth may or may not fall into the sun this week. Another quote from the eweek article: "For example, a DDoS attack in June against Akamai Technologies Inc. slowed traff ic across the Internet for several hours. And in July, DoubleClick Inc.'s DNS (d omain name system) was attacked and unable to serve ads for a similar time frame." OMFG! The internet might slow down!1!1! nice to see slashdot stories have sunk to the level of the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News.
Jihad Begins Thursday, Internet Predicted to Melt Down by Mid-day
You should probably starting backing up that gig of gmail to local storage. According to a Russian news site, Kaspersky Labs states that terrorists will launch attacks which will paralyze the Internet this Thursday. This tragically coincides with two weeks of script kiddie attacks (which were scheduled to begin this past Sunday) aimed at disrupting the Republican national convention. In addition, many college students are back on campus this week, which provides the e-terrorists and i-subversives with a veritable candyland of insecure boxes on big pipes. Faced with this triple threat, our beloved Internet will surely fall.
The ISC would like to go out on a limb and predict that the Internet will not vaporize into a cloud of nothingness this Thursday, but if it does, it's been our pleasure to help stave off its inevitable annihilation this long.
Click here.
Why is this a story? Seriously... This is pure BS. You KNOW tomorrow will come and go and nothing will happen.
Might as well report that the Apocalypse is supposed to happen sometime between 7 PM and 12 AM on Friday.
Personally, I hope it does happen. There hasn't really been any interesting attacks since Code Red. I'm always looking forward to what attackers will come up with next.
If they could actually cause a "meltdown", then that would be purely amazing.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
Since about midnight last night, Earthlink appears to be ahead of this "internet meltdown" curve. Their DSL service has been slow when it's working at all.
What a service provider!
Maybe he is referring to the Windows Update release of XP SP2?
a man, a plan, a canal, panama
If you lined up all of the economists in the world, you still wouldn't reach a conclusion.
and it need not be limited to five.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I'm curious to see how much success they'll have. The internet was, after all, designed explicitly for the purpose of continued operation through attacks on the network.
Screw the net! I spend all my time on teh intarweb!
Damn, quick someone set up old style dial up bbs :-)
Someone archive all the pr0n, credit card numbers, serial numbers, war3z, dvds, mp3s, AAC, Linux (SCO variant not to be included) on the net on it.
Someone set up a paypal account for donations to help keep it up. wait n/m PayPal will be gone too....
NO!!!!!
.... ... }
int main (void) {
My strategy will consist of a different approach:
1) Do absolutely nothing.
2) If anything happens tomorrow pull the plug on the DSL router we use for Internet access.
3) Plug the router back in after a few hours.
4) Repeat step 1.
I was so very sad when that happened. It was rather tragic.
Germans, Algerians, Vietnamese ....
Infuriate left and right
really that bad?
from eweek: here:
And in July, DoubleClick Inc.'s DNS (domain name system) was attacked and unable to serve ads for a similar time frame.
oh, boo-hoo people can't get their poor little ads...
Here we go again!
A story on /. that doesn't require you to RTFA! I think the headline on this site contained almost as much information as the linked stories did.
It is explained clearly by Russ Cooper in this bugtraq post.
With the AK, wouldn't you, technically, be playing a FPS, but with better graphics and sound?
Careful, you're playing hardcore mode.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I like the Internet Storm Center's comment about this "news". From today's
diary:
"The ISC would like to go out on a limb and predict that the Internet will not vaporize into a cloud of nothingness this Thursday, but if it does, it's been our pleasure to help stave off its inevitable annihilation this long."
---- join dshield.org Distributed Intrusion Detec
Now I might make use of that Y2K shelter I built before the last advertised armageddon. I will remain sheltered and safe as our countries digital infrastructure is brought to its knees, causing widespread havoc and depriving returned college students of their Kazaa fix. I've been dying to break into the Tang and Deviled Ham stockpiles.
"Don't waste your time or time will waste you" -MUSE
It's just the stupid XP SP2 upgrade through Windows Auto Update. How somebody could confuse a Windows update with cyber terrorism is beyond me!
I may be off my rocker here, but...
I know what MD5 hashing is...What the hell is "Shah 0", discussed in the eWeek article? Does this mean that Iran is giving us encryption now? It must not be very good, if it's in danger of being cracked.
Thoroughly cracked myself...
Tim
Behold, the power of fleas...
Now watch for a dupe of this story TOMORROW!
Someone has found This....
No DON'T push that button...
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
If he's right, it's not like your comments will be modded up anyways.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
A *RUSSIAN* scientist spreading homeland security propaganda for an *AMERICAN* political party. You really put a lot of thought into that assertion, didn't you?
One word: outsourcing.
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
Sounds to me like someone's had a bit too much vodka. Put the bottle down, Boris!
Must-not-watch TV!
From: news@kaspersky.com [mailto:news@kaspersky.com]
:snipped::
. html for the rest.
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 10:29 AM
To: news@kaspersky.com
Subject: VirusList.com Virus Alerts & Virus News: 25th August 2004: Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
VirusList.com Virus Alerts & Virus News. Wednesday, August 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.'
See http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/today/0006
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
On its FAQ:
1.12. Did people in China really use the Google Mirror after China blocked Google?
Yes. We received numerous emails from web surfers in China thanking us for this service.
1.13. I heard that China also blocked other websites that used Google. Why didn't China block elgooG too?
We believe that elgooG survived the Great Firewall of China because the firewall operators thought that elgooG was a joke and not a fully functional version of Google.
http://alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog/info/
!@#$!@ modern politics... I'm voting for FDR.
a recent e-mail i got asking me to change our router passwords all to admin/admin. It may have been a mistake for me to do that now that I think about it :(
Apparently the terrorists found this website, and will be visiting it tomorrow:
From the eWeek article:
Sounds like someone with less than half a clue got hold of a certain Slashdot article and is blowing it way out of proportion. Also from that same article:
I can imagine a few guys with AK-47s, sitting either in bombed out buildings or caves in the middle of a desert hacking away at encryption algorithms and figuring out ways to trounce "Internet servers". Sheesh, what do we need all of our mathematicians and security researchers for if these guys can just brush these mechanisms out of the way like theyre nothing?
Why bother.
Our net connection at work today was totally choked with a huge DoS attack.
:)
Considering i've not seen this happen for the 5 years i've been using that connection (previous job used my job as their ISP), and considering the fact we have multiple lines including 155mbit ATM's, it seems to be very very unusual timing for this article to come up.
OH NOES! TEH APPOCALYPES!!11
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
It's Al Gore's internet. Did anyone ask him if this was a planned outage?
Chip H.
Whoa. The article says MD5 encryption was cracked. Is this true? I had only heard a rumour that a single collision had been found. And as for SHA-0... that's hardly making up the backbone of the Internet, is it?
Wait a minute... is MD5 even encryption at all? I thought it was a "message digest"...
Let's speculate on the speculation and ultimately conclude it's Microsoft's fault for absolutely no reason and with no evidence. And +5 we go!
They've already struck. Their insidious plan is to blind people with horrible web page colors. Ah my eyes! I'm hit! Man down, man down!
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
Bid now for anything ending tomorrow that still has a low price today, the last-minute squad won't be able to grab it tomorrow :P
*(EST)
Before the invention of eruptions, lava had to be carried down the mountain by hand and thrown on sleeping villagers.