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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!!!!!
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Could they be a bit clearer on which TZ they're basing the attack? For me, it's already "tomorrow" in Japan.
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
Summary: nothing to see here. Move along.
> Is it someone who makes threats using electronic media?
no thats the RIAA isn't it?
---- There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't
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.
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've personally become entirely jaded by the term 'terrorist'. I've heard it used to describe just about everything that the speaker wants to scare you into believing.
Officials of foreign governments are now terrorists, drinking a Pepsi at the Olympics is "advertising terrorism", etc.
As Reagan said; one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
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.'
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.
...
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."
A case of cry wolf, most likely. The main question is 'Why the hell?'
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Doesn't XP Service Pack 2 finally make its way onto Windows Auto-update tomorrow?
Don't Crease the Weasel!
Also, why tomorrow?
Obviously it's because August 26 is Macaulay Culkin's birthday. Everyone knows terrorists are big fans of the Home Alone movies, though not the third one.
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 is your livelyhood, then the threat of being shutdown or defaced (thereby damaging your company's reputation) is very real. While it is not life-threatening, a successful cyber attack could be very distruptive. If, for example, someone was able to shut down a large percentage of the Internet, what effect could that have on the US economy? It would not take long for serious repercussions on a world-wide scale due to loss of productivity.
No, they are not terrorists in threatening people's lives, but if they can prove that they can hit the economy, they accomplish the same goal: to create fear. Remember, one of the goals of 9/11 was not just to kill people but to hurt the US economy. Is this something to be worried about? What kind of wide-spread damage could a "cyber-terrorist" cause on the Internet?
BTW, I realize that this was a mis-quote, but it does bring up interesting questions.
I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!
>one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
If a fire fighter fights fires, and a crime fighter fights crime, what is a "freedom fighter"?
"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.
Hrm... but what about those instances where loss of the internet will increase productivity? For instance, I should be doing work right now...what if there's an interesting balance that happens (no internet hurts some folks, but helps others) such that the net effect is zero? And what's more important - net effect or effect for a given individual?
Now there's a philosophical mind-bender...
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
Kaspersky can't even seem to put together a decent antivirus program. We used to use it at my place of employment - when it originally came out it was quite good, possibly the best scanner for NT. Then it went right in the fucking toilet and became basically unusable. I wouldn't trust this guy to tell me that chili cheese fritos taste good when you're stoned.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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!!
Maybe he is referring to the Windows Update release of XP SP2?
a man, a plan, a canal, panama
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.
We HAVE to have the term terrorist, we aren't allowed to call everyone who disagrees with us "nazi" anymore.
And if you don't agree, that's because you are a friggin terro-nazi.
And since I'm now apparently a "troll", I'd like to go on to point out that in the 2004 Presidential Election, Cthulhu is not, in fact, the greatest evil in the running, ancient and all-devouring though he may be.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
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
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.
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.....