http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nf/20010417/tc/9028_1.html
By Robyn Weisman,
NewsFactor.com
Tuesday April 17, 2001
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday confirmed past hack
attacks on several U.S. Web sites, and said that perhaps several more
have been perpetrated by Chinese hacktivists protesting U.S. actions
in the recently-ended spy plane crisis.
Although the FBI declined to offer specific details about the hacked
sites, news sources have learned that hackers have defaced two U.S.
Navy sites, neither of them classified, and two e-businesses that
don't appear to have any connection to the crisis.
The hack attacks reportedly include condemnations of American
imperialism and eulogies for Wang Wei, the Chinese fighter pilot
believed to have been killed when his jet collided with a U.S. spy
plane.
"All that we are aware of is an intrusion emanating from abroad," said
FBI spokesperson Debbie Weierman. "We are coordinating with
appropriate government agencies."
Random Attacks
"We discovered that the home page on one of our sites had been
replaced with a posting of a Chinese flag, with some rhetoric in
Chinese and English," Dan Olasin, president of Intelligent Direct, a
company that sells maps online, told news sources.
"It would have been more productive in the scheme of things if the
hackers had been interested in exchanging ideas on the Internet
somehow, rather than resorting to attacks like these."
Frank Prince, an analyst with Forrester Research, told NewsFactor
Network that such a benign site "may just be a target of opportunity"
that had no apparent relevance to the conflict at hand.
"The terrorist has a bomb in the truck set to go off at 1 p.m.," said
Prince, citing an analogy. "He's driving to the target but traffic is
heavy and he's late. So at 12:59 he drives into the nearest building
and blows it up. Should the building owner have to put up barricades
against truck bombs?"
"Should the government put cameras on every corner to track
terrorists?" Prince added. "What aspect of the problem do you want to
focus on?"
'Hackers Union' Takes Credit
The "Hackers Union of China" took credit on Monday for defacing at
least one American Web site, of a California-based business, and has
posted a list of at least 10 more sites hacked in memory of the dead
pilot.
On the American Web site, text left by the hacking group read: "As we
are Chinese, we love our motherland and its people deeply. We are so
indignant about the intrusion from the imperialism. The only thing we
could say is that, when we are needed, we are ready to devote anything
to our motherland, even including our lives."
'Vulnerable' Sites Targeted
SecurityFocus.com incident analyst Ryan Russell expressed scorn
regarding the hacker group.
"They are supposedly protesting the U.S. plane, and yet they are
picking on some sites that have nothing at all to do with anything
vaguely military," Russell told NewsFactor.
"They defaced a few pages just because they were vulnerable and
appeared to be in the U.S."
"Recently, we checked the records in our ARIS system for attacks
originating in China, for the two weeks following the downed plane,"
said Russell. "There was no significant increase."
"What we have here is a handful of guys causing trouble, and claiming
to represent China," Russell concluded. "I don't believe they
represent anyone but themselves."
[Breakout of defaced U.S. .mil sites]
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/mil.html
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Received on Wed Apr 18 01:18 CDT 2001