Forwarded From: Synthe Omicron <synthe@ronin.net>
Cyber 'Vandals' Target Indonesia
by James Glave
10:15am 18.Aug.98.PDT
In an effort to raise awareness of alleged human rights violations against
ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, Internet vandals have begun scrawling protest
messages across that country's Web sites -- and sending mailbombs to
Indonesians.
"This page is hacked for your national day," read one example Monday.
"Please keep this page for 48 hours and punish the murderers in May
immediately." The text was signed "Discoverer."
At least two Web sites in Indonesia's .id country domain were altered as
of Monday. Messages in broken English and Chinese accused the Indonesian
government of failing to react to the alleged torture, rape, and murder of
Indonesian Chinese during race riots in that country last May.
"Did you see the disorder in May? And do you want to see another disorder
in your Internet? We come here JUST to make our protest against your
violence. I don't want to make any data-losing in your NET," read a
message at www.bkkbn.go.id titled "Warning From Chinese."
The message warned site administrators to leave the defaced page,
containing links to stories on the Indonesian race riots, live for 48
hours, apparently to reflect the amount of time the rioting lasted.
Another site, which was defaced on 12 August, was signed by "Chinese
Hacker" and apparently sought to "warn-n-punish all cruel-n-uncultivated
Indonisian [sic]."
The attacks on Indonesian computer systems are only the latest in a string
of politically motivated actions that have gone on since 1995, said the
director of the country's leading computer-security investigative body.
"Vandals from Taiwan, China are doing low-tech attacks (such as
mailbomb)," said Budi Rahardjo of the Indonesia Computer Emergency
Response Team in an email to Wired News. "They are mad with Indonesia's
policy and blamed Indonesians for the riot in [May] (which was targeted
against Chinese-decendants)."
Rahardjo said the mailbombs were numerous and large -- over 100 Kb. They
were sent to "any Indonesians [the attackers] can find." He said he has
received some of the mailbombs because his address is listed as a contact
for the Indonesian Network Information Center and various Indonesian web
sites.
Rahardjo said that the latest attacks appeared to originate from Taiwan
and China, and that the Indonesian government was concerned and conducting
an investigation. However, Rahardjo predicted the vandalism would have
little impact and questioned the hackers' tactics.
"Why don't they create their own Web sites?"
"Most of the attacks (attackers) are known," said Rahardjo. The origin of
mailbombs are also known, he added.
A representative for the Indonesian embassy in Washington, DC, was not
available for comment.
Another Indonesian computer security source was similarly disappointed
with the sites.
"I don't know if you can consider it as a protest," said Bobby Nahzief, of
the University of Indonesia's Computer Science Center. "It's more of
'yet-another-violation' to me. One of the sites they attacked was a
research and development Web site, which has little to do with human
rights violations."
Previous Internet attacks, including those launched by the Portuguese
hacking group KaotiK, have targeted Indonesia's policy in East Timor. Then
there are others, associated with domestic Indonesians apparently unhappy
with their government's policies, said Rahardjo. He added that political
computer attacks against Indonesia have been going on since 1995.
Jack Hong, director of business development for Sinanet, a
California-based Web portal for Chinese speakers, said that he was aware
of the Web vandalism, but that his organization "does not condone hacking
as a conduit of protest."
Hong said that Sinanet has supported an online petition known as the
Yellow Ribbon campaign, that has so far gathered over 43,000 electronic
signatures designed to raise awareness of the Chinese-Indonesian
atrocities.
The president of the Indonesian Chinese American Network, a Web site
dedicated to raising awareness of the alleged human rights violations in
Indonesia, said that education and dialog, not direct action, was the best
course.
"We want everyone to become the leader of influence and encouragement,"
said Jon Oei. "A lot of the Chinese are afraid to talk. We should
encourage them to talk and influence others, but not by hacking Web
pages."
Hong said that one hacked protest Web page, at www.vsi.dpe.go.id, was
limited in its effectiveness because the pages required that visiting
browsers support GB-2312, a technology for rendering Chinese characters.
Hong said that the page was partly an historical account of racial
inequities related to Chinese, and partly a call-to arms for Chinese
hackers to fight back.
-o-
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Received on Thu Aug 20 09:43:11 1998