Digital Underground

[Casey]

Exposing the 'Darknet': Are Al Qaeda terrorists using your personal computer?

by Patrick Radden Keefe
February 15th, 2005 11:03 AM alert me by e-mail

When he walked out of Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution in California five years ago, Kevin Mitnick, the most notorious hacker in the United States, faced a peculiar probation requirement. For three years following his release, he was obliged not to touch a computer keyboard or use a cellular phone. Mitnick himself attributed this novel constraint to the fact that the judge in his case had bought into "the myth of Kevin Mitnick—that I could launch nuclear missiles by whistling into a phone." But the desire to physically isolate him from any type of computer was also a frank admission of failure on the part of the authorities: The FBI was so inept and Mitnick so adept with communications technologies that they regarded him as a practitioner of a kind of black magic. In a broader sense, the episode illustrates a digital divide between those who have mastered the capabilities of networked technologies and those who have not. This divide has traditionally been exploited by identity thieves, pornographers, spammers, and copyright pirates. But in the last several years, terrorists have increasingly exploited it as well.

Paul Wolfowitz announced recently that American authorities will pursue Al Qaeda in "cyber sanctuaries," signaling a new theater in the ever evolving war on terrorism: the Internet. The American campaign in Afghanistan had a noticeable impact on the infrastructure of Al Qaeda, but rather than "smoke" the terrorists out, as President Bush declared it would, the war on terror has simply driven them further underground, decentralizing the leadership, atomizing the threat, and increasingly pushing terrorists onto the Web. If

American forces are unaccustomed to pursuing adversaries through the caves of Afghanistan or the streets of Baghdad, they will have even more trouble tracking

Al Qaeda online, because Internet technology favors the fugitive criminal and the migrant threat, and because terrorists know how to turn the new digital divide to their advantage. In this evasive game they have at their disposal a most unusual accomplice: unwitting Americans with personal computers and Internet connections.

It emerged last year that Fortress ITX, a Clifton, New Jersey, Internet company, inadvertently hosted an Arabic-language website that urged attacks on America and Israel and supplied instructional pamphlets on kidnapping and urban guerrilla warfare. The emergence of this "virtual terrorism" should not be surprising, nor should the fact that Fortress ITX was unaware of it. Despite their wish to turn back the clock on various advances of the modern era, the followers of Osama bin Laden have proved surprisingly capable with the tools of the Internet. In addition to the use of explosives and automatic weapons, Al Qaeda trainees are instructed in computer encryption. Bin Laden associates employ cutting-edge steganography, which involves implanting a text message into a single image or letter on a website. Last July Pakistani authorities captured Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a kind of one-man IT department, who helped bin Laden maintain his network by sending encrypted messages to e-mail addresses in places like Turkey and Nigeria. Sites like the one discovered in New Jersey are now the preferred means of communication for Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Seven years ago, there were only a dozen websites associated with terrorist groups; today there are over 4,000.

What's more unsettling is that American computer users may assist in this growth phase for Al Qaeda. The appeal of the Internet for those engaged in any sort of crime is twofold. First, it's possible to conduct business in near complete anonymity provided you can divert pursuers by routing your activity through neutral networks and computers to cover your tracks. And second, most people running those networks and using those PCs are so completely naive about this technology that for the sophisticated criminal, hijacking the hardware is child's play.

The average American computer user comprehends only a minor fraction of what his or her machine can do. Word processing, Web surfing, and burning the odd CD hardly exhaust a computer's capabilities, and consumers who shell out $2,000 every couple of years to purchase a new computer for these purposes are a little like the bourgeois urbanites who use a Viking range to boil water and reheat takeout. But a computer is connected to the outside world—and that makes the naive owner of a networked PC vulnerable. A few years ago a computer-savvy New York identity theft ring stole the credit histories of more than 30,000 people, and used them to empty bank accounts, take out false loans, and run up credit card bills. In 2003 over a thousand people had them hijacked by a group of hackers representing porn sites, who secretly used the computers as portals through which to transmit material onto the Web. The programs didn't harm the computers, and wouldn't show up unless users were looking for them. "Here people are sort of involved in the porno business and don't even know it," said Richard M. Smith, the computer researcher who first noticed the problem. Another security analyst believed the ring could be traced to the Mafia-connected computer underground in Russia—but couldn't say for sure.

Terrorists have become experts at identifying unguarded server space from which to upload material. Jihad videos were recently discovered on the servers of George Washington University and the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department. Some of the more sophisticated terrorist sites migrate from one server to another, often several times a day, in order to evade the authorities. "Reverse proxy servers" allow a user to cloak his identity behind a "front" computer, by transmitting material through that computer onto the Internet while making it appear that the front computer is in fact the server.

It's not only civilians who are vulnerable to the menaces of the Web. In the late '90s a group of analysts at the National Security Agency launched a war game called Eligible Receiver, in which they downloaded easily accessible software from hacker websites to see what kind of damage they could do. They determined that it would be possible to shut down the U.S. electrical power grid and disable the command-and-control elements of the U.S. Pacific Command. Not only could the FBI and the Pentagon not foil the simulated attacks, the chain of proxy servers was such that they couldn't even identify where all but one of the attacks were coming from. When Congress's General Accounting Office released its annual Computer Security Report Card for 2003, the Department of Defense received a D. Homeland Security got an F.

If a sort of arms race between the good guys and the bad guys has developed with respect to Internet technology, it's clear that the bad guys have a decisive head start. Big bureaucracies are uniquely ill equipped to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies. Stubborn institutional culture, clogged channels of communication, and the sheer number of employees in American law enforcement and intelligence agencies make it difficult to shift with the technological sands. Last month it emerged that the FBI had undertaken a $170 million overhaul of its antiquated computer systems—which will likely be abandoned because of technical problems.

In 2002 four Microsoft engineers published a paper in which they coined the term the "darknet." This was essentially an extensive and opaque Internet black market, "not a separate physical network but an application and protocol layer riding on existing networks," in which peer-to-peer sharing and other forms of piracy succeeded in flouting copyright laws and distributing material that was effectively contraband. Today it is obvious that the dark side of the Internet is much more extensive—and much more dangerous—than this initial interpretation suggested. Terrorists have strong incentives to master new technologies and exploit this country's 159 million Internet users in a virtual game of hide-and-seek.

What is most extraordinary and ironic about this predicament is that developments that throughout the 1990s we tended to think of as unequivocally good—the free flow of information and ideas, the exponential acceleration of communications, the "borderless" quality of the Internet—now appear to cut both ways, to have a dramatic downside. The dark regions of the Internet have allowed Al Qaeda to reconstitute itself as a virtual terrorist group, one that is beginning, through its masterful distribution of propaganda, to resemble not so much an organization as a movement, and one that has used America's accelerated rate of technological growth to its own advantage. The only option for law enforcement and intelligence agencies is to become more skilled with network security technologies—or to hire those who already are. Three years after his release, Kevin Mitnick was allowed to use the Internet. He set up a computer security consultancy. Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should look him up.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0507,essay,61085,2.html

[Petronas]

FBI Issues Warning About Computer Virus
February 22, 2005 6:44 PM EST

WASHINGTON - The FBI warned Tuesday that a computer virus is being spread through unsolicited e-mails that purport to come from the FBI. The e-mails appear to come from an fbi.gov address. They tell recipients that they have accessed illegal Web sites and that their Internet use has been monitored by the FBI's "Internet Fraud Complaint Center," the FBI said. The messages then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer questions. The computer virus is in the attachment.

"Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner," the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phony e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/tec?guid=20050222/421abc50_3ca6_1552620050222-892499460

[Casey]

IN 2000, GARY Bunt, a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter, published a seminal work on Islam and the internet. Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments (Cardiff: University of Wales Press) explored the dialectic between Islam, as the fastest-growing religion in the world, and the world wide web, the communications medium of the millennium.


Hailed by reviewers as a “valuable guide to things related to Islam on the Internet, especially to readers pondering over technology’s impact on religious identity or the ummah’s urgent social, moral and political questions,” the book opens with an introduction defining cyber Islamic environments as “representations of the real and also representations of the ideal.”


Unlike other virtual realities, however, these environments can impact the real lives of individuals on many levels. Bunt poses and attempts to answer questions such as whether the creators of these cyberspaces are casting Islam in an idealized light, and how far they represent actual people and issues. Toying with the notion of identity, the book also probes the question of whether it is inherently contradictory to speak of “digital” and “Islamic” in the same breath. It tries to assess the impact of Islam-related websites and how material on these sites “influence Muslim and non-Muslim perspectives on Islam and Islamic issues.”


The five subsequent chapters deal with the notion of da’wa (the call to join the faith) as one of the primary forms of Islamic expression on the net; the diversity of Islamic cyber activity, such as Sunni versus Shi’a sites; online political diversity and how Muslim political parties (whether government or opposition) have invested in websites as platforms to propagate their perspective; and the use of the internet as a pulpit to deliver sermons.


Serving almost as a sequel to Virtually Islamic, Bunt’s Islam in the Digital Age: E-Jihad, Online Fatwas and Cyber Islamic Environments (London: Pluto Press, 2003) is the first comprehensive analysis of the same subject after 9/11 and the war on Iraq.


Here, Bunt taps into the phenomenon of electronic jihad and how the internet has become a forum for online activism and a window for the Muslim point of view on current affairs touching the ummah. The book also examines how Muslim cybernauts have made use of the communications revolution, not only on the political front, but also on matters of faith. The widespread issuing of online religious edicts fatwas to serve a contemporary Muslim audience living in majority or minority contexts has helped spur a qualitative shift with people depending more and more on unconventional (virtual) figures of religious authority who have a direct effect on their daily lives.


Bunt dedicates a large part of this book to defining the greater and lesser forms of e-jihad; hacking for Islam; patterns in the use of e-mail, message forums and chat rooms; post-9/11 mujahideen in cyberspace; and electronic efforts to achieve jihad for peace. In a highly rational approach, he tries to diffuse popular alarmism about Islamist use of the web.


In his concluding comments on e-jihad, Bunt asserts that the Islamic lane on the information superhighway reflects “varied and sophisticated notions of jihadi symbolism based in part on traditional interpretations of the concept,” but that the extent to which these cyber Islamic environments represent a “digital sword” is still open to question.


Bunt’s two books combined are groundbreaking canonical texts for students of both virtual Islam and, in a wider sense, those studying religion and the internet.

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2965

[Casey]

Virtually Islamic Blogspot

http://virtuallyislamic.blogspot.com/

[Casey]

Teen helping adults fight ‘bad guys’

BY M. KRISHNAMOORTHY
KUALA LUMPUR: Soon after Sept 11, 2001 when Ankit Fadia was 14 years old, he was requested by a US international intelligence agency to decipher an encrypted message from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

The young IT genius from New Delhi was paid a handsome sum when he decrypted the message.

At 16, Ankit outsmarted Kashmiri separatists who had planned, in a chat channel, to attack an Indian website.

After gathering much information about the people behind the planned attack, the teenager took on a member’s nickname and eavesdropped on their conversation.

WHIZ KID: Ankit has written five bestsellers on computer security although he is just 19.

He recorded a copy of the chat transcript and mailed it to the US spy organisation that hired him. The corporate site was then pulled down for two hours and uploaded with anti-cracking software.

“They were basically hackers who wanted to deface the site and put up a message saying Kashmir belonged to Pakistan,” said Ankit, who completed his assignment in a day and was, again, paid a substantial amount for his job.

Ankit continues to work closely with the Indian police and other international police organisations to track down crackers (unethical hackers) who wreak havoc on websites.

Today, at 19, the Stanford University computer science sophomore globe trots, advising and lecturing CEOs on how to safeguard their computer and Internet systems against unethical hackers.

“Cyber terrorism is on the rise and Malaysians should be aware of it. They should learn more about the security systems in order to protect their computer systems,” the visiting self-proclaimed “ethical hacker” said in a recent interview.

He defined a hacker as “a good person who can help in securing the system” while a cracker is “the bad guy who aims to destroy websites”.

Ankit, the son of an Indian Government engineer has authored five bestsellers on computer security, which have sold 100,000 copies across the globe.

His books have been translated into Korean, Portuguese and Polish and are used as reference textbooks in some higher learning institutes in Asia and the United States.

The whiz kid, who wrote his first book when he was just 14, was invited here to speak at the Multimedia Super Corridor monthly dialogue with CEOs and deliver a talk on ethical hacking at the Multimedia University.

“I want to work with Malaysian corporate organisations to design better computer security systems against crackers.

“Malaysians seem to place little attention on Internet security system and, therefore, are vulnerable to crackers,” Ankit added.

He said he found Malaysia to be a “fantastic place” for IT development and hopes to invest in either Cyberjaya or the KLCC after completing his studies at Stanford in two years’ time.

http://thestaronline.com/news/story.asp?file=/2005/2/27/nation/10276403&sec=nation

[Casey]

This thread is an extension of the e-jihad thread on the previous board regarding the internet as a tool for terrorism, internet attacks and current threats and all forms of e-jihad, organized propaganda (i.e. flooding western sites with pictures, messages, dis-information, etc.)

An interesting article as to how e-jihad is used may be found here:
The web as a tool of Islam, Islamism and Islamist terrorism
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=393

Archive of the previous e-jihad thread is here:
http://www.afghanistanwar.com/showthread.php?t=3353

[al-Canine]

Watchdogs Sniff Out Terror Sites

by John Lasker

On the website of Internet Haganah, self-described as "an internet counterinsurgency," the mark of victory is a makeshift graphic -- a little blue AK-47 assault rifle.

"Haganah" in Hebrew means defense. But when Internet Haganah's founder places another AK-47 on his site, it means mission accomplished: another jihad website taken out by going on the offensive.

Aaron Weisburd runs Internet Haganah out of his southern Illinois home. Weisburd, who said he has received threats because of his activities, asked to communicate by e-mail.

The forty-something native of New York describes Internet Haganah as a "small band of researchers, analysts, translators and consultants" around the globe dedicated to ferreting out websites linked to terrorist groups.

"Islamist terrorists are making extensive use of the internet," he said. This compelled him to action, but unlike a politically motivated hacker, he chose a legal path. Internet Haganah survives on individual donations and advertising.
"Internet Haganah is one part combat mission, one part intelligence operation, one part grass-roots political action," Weisburd said.

Since its inception three years ago, Internet Haganah has taken credit for or assisted in the shutdown of more than 600 sites it claims were linked to terror. Some allegedly raised funds for pro-Palestinian groups Hamas and Hezbollah; others backed the insurgency in Iraq.

Weisburd's organization will first research a site, then make a "whois" inquiry. If there is evidence of extremism, it contacts the hosting company and urges the host to remove the site from its servers. If successful, which is often, Internet Haganah sometimes purchases the domain name so the address is never used again.

Surprisingly, much of Internet Haganah's work is focused on the United States, where the cost of buying and maintaining a domain is cheap, and customers' privacy is guarded.

"There are close to 300 sites listed in our database, and hundreds more that we are aware of and in the process of listing," Weisburd said. "Most of them are kept online by American companies."

One example is GoDaddy.com, one of the world's top website providers, and responsible for a $4 million, 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.

The Scottsdale, Arizona, company can also take credit for hosting Mawsuat.com weeks before the big game. The Islamic extremist site featured a diagram showing how to attack a motorcade, as well as a recipe for making a chemical weapon. The cost to produce the Mawsuat.com site was likely less than $100.

With help from an ally, Internet Haganah convinced GoDaddy.com to remove the site from its servers. "Analysis of e-mail headers sent by the registrant revealed a location in Arizona," said Weisburd.

Nick Fuller, a spokesman for GoDaddy.com, said the company's legal department is handling the Mawsuat.com issue, and declined further comment.

Internent Haganah claimed responsibility last week for closing Moqawmh.com, which was hosted by Missouri-based Savvis, the world's third-largest provider of hosting services. But the victory was short-lived. Moqawmh.com, which calls itself the official site for the pro-Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, was up and running again by the end of the week.

The new host? Sago Networks of Tampa Bay, Florida.

In its defense, Savvis offers a rational explanation as to why American companies continue to be criticized for hosting terror-linked sites. Bill Hancock, chief security officer for Savvis, says it's impossible to know all its clients' site content when the company hosts over 5 million sites.

"We have thousands of rehosting facilities reselling Savvis IP addresses," he said. "The bottom line is, there's no way to know. If we did, we'd jump on it quickly," adding that his department has been working closely with federal agents on other jihad sites for some time.

"The real issue is how responsive and responsible they are when informed that they are hosting a terrorist's website," Weisburd said.

Experts say the presence of Islamic radicalism on the web has grown markedly since 9/11. They say the internet has become a vital means of communication, financing and indoctrination for Islamic jihad, widely believed to be a decentralized movement.

Some believe Islamic extremism on the internet actually works against the terrorists.

"A lot of what we know about al-Qaida is gleaned from these websites," said Steven Aftergood, a scientist at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C., and director of the nonprofit organization's Project on Government Secrecy. "They are a greater value as an intelligence source than if they were to disappear."

However, earlier this year, the PBS documentary program Frontline reported that the Madrid rail bombing by al-Qaida was likely inspired by a document posted on an extremist site. A timely attack, the document suggested, could sway voters and deliver a government that would withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. A Justice Department spokesman told Frontline it didn't have enough staff to monitor the internet 24/7.

That's where Internet Haganah and other private-sector organizations step in. The Washington, D.C.-based Search for International Terrorist Entities Institute, or SITE, is considered a definitive source on Islamic terror groups. Clients of the organization's fee-based intelligence service include the FBI, Office of Homeland Security and media groups around the globe.

"It is actually to our benefit to have some of these terror sites up and running by American companies," said SITE's co-founder and director, Rita Katz. "If the servers are in the U.S., this is to our advantage when it comes to monitoring activities."

Weisburd said his goal is simple: to keep the extremists moving from address to address, striking "at the heart of their identity."

"The object isn't to silence them -- the object is to keep them moving, keep them talking, force them to make mistakes, so we can gather as much information about them as we can, each step of the way."


http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?symbols=WIRED:100&story=200502242328_WRD_66708_200502241828

[Casey]

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

Swiss Seize Five Suspected Extremists
By BETTINA STADELMANN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss police have detained five purported Islamic extremists suspected of running Web sites that showed the execution of hostages and provided details of how to make bombs and carry out attacks, authorities said Friday.

The five suspects were taken into custody on Feb. 22 in anti-terror raids in the capital, Bern, and nearby Fribourg, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office. Two were later released but remained under investigation.

The prosecutor's office did not say if the executions shown included the high-profile beheadings of foreign hostages in Iraq, blamed on the al-Qaida linked group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Video recordings of the killings have been posted on various Islamic Web sites.

The five suspects - all legal residents of Switzerland - were under investigation for incitement to crime and for supporting a terrorist organization, it said.

Officers also seized computers, software, video recordings and images, the office said, adding that police used force during the operation in Fribourg.

All the suspects were "of the Islamic faith, with extremist leanings," the prosecutor's office said. It did not give identities and officials were not available for comment.

The prosecutor's office said the raids followed months of investigation of individuals believed to have ties to Arabic Web sites containing violent images, including executions and mutilations.

Swiss investigators also investigated Internet discussion forums tied to the sites, including one that contained threats against European governments and information relating to two French reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were held by Islamic militants in Iraq for four months before being released in December. The prosecutor's office did not elaborate.

--
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2005/mar/04/030400873.html

[Casey]

Man o man, now there is an interrogation I would love to be witness to.

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

Swiss Seize Five Suspected Extremists
By BETTINA STADELMANN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss police have detained five purported Islamic extremists suspected of running Web sites that showed the execution of hostages and provided details of how to make bombs and carry out attacks, authorities said Friday.

[Casey]

Swiss seize five suspected extremists

By BETTINA STADELMANN, Associated Press Writer

Posted: Friday March 4th, 2005, 8:36 AM
Last Updated: Friday March 4th, 2005, 12:18 PM

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss authorities said Friday they have detained five Islamic extremists suspected of using the Internet to show the killing of hostages - which reportedly included the beheading of an American - and to give bomb-making instructions.

It was unclear if any of the slayings took place in Iraq, where they have been blamed on the group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Video recordings of those killings have been posted on various Islamic Web sites.
"The sites - which were actively exploited by at least one of the arrested persons - included numerous videos showing the putting to death of hostages and the mutilation of human beings," said a statement by the Federal Prosecutor's Office.

Peter Lehmann, spokesman for the office, declined to go into detail about the slayings, telling The Associated Press the locations of the killings had yet to be determined.

All the suspects were "of the Islamic faith, with extremist leanings," the office said. It did not identify any of them, but said they came from Tunisia and Belgium and were legal residents of Switzerland.

They are under investigation for incitement to crime and for supporting a terrorist organization, it said.

The office cited the now-closed Web site www.islamic-minbar.com, saying its forum published letters claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan in July 2004.

"The forum of one of the sites was often used by the Islamist movement as a communication and propaganda tool," the statement said, adding that the investigation covered Arab-language sites.

The forum also contained threats against European governments and information relating to two French reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were held by Islamic militants in Iraq for four months before being released in December. The prosecutor's office did not elaborate.

According to Swiss media reports after the site was shut down, its postings included a video showing the beheading of American Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and killed in Saudi Arabia in June, as well as a threat to kill Italian aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were abducted in Baghdad on Sept. 7 and freed Sept. 28.

Other postings included a sermon by an Iraqi Islamic cleric urging Muslims to behead Jews and fight a holy war against unbelievers; pictures of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden fighting in Afghanistan; and graphic images of a man being beaten to death during Christian-Muslim violence in Indonesia.

The five suspects were detained Feb. 22 in anti-terrorism raids in the capital, Bern, and nearby Fribourg, the prosecutor's office said. Police used force during the operation in Fribourg, the office said without elaborating.

Three of the suspects are still in custody. The other two have been released but remain under investigation, the office said. Police also seized computers, software, video recordings and images.

"The police action was preceded by investigations which lasted several months," the statement explained. "They were able to identify several people who spread fundamentalist Islamist ideas on the Internet."

The www.islamic-minbar.com site - launched June 21, 2004 - was closed by its Swiss Internet service provider in September because of its content.

"Another site was then opened" outside Switzerland, the prosecutor's office said, but did not identify the site.

Swiss authorities have sought international judicial assistance to have the new site shut down, the office said, without identifying the country involved.

Swiss media previously have identified the founder of www.islamic-minbar.com as Moez Garsallaoui, a Tunisian who was based in Lausanne. A woman who answered the telephone at Garsallaoui's listed number in the Swiss city said he did not live there.

In September, Garsallaoui was quoted as telling the Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung that his site was dedicated to "political discussion."

"If terrorists want to use this site to publish things, I can't do anything about it," he was quoted as saying. "I don't have any control over that."

---

http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/world/story/2201063p-10315942c.html

[Casey]

The office cited the now-closed Web site www.islamic-minbar.com, saying its forum published letters claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan in July 2004.

This is where I used to get most of the AQ statements. And they did have a video forums as most forums do.

[JaneDoe]

There will be more to take it's place. We just need to find them.

[JaneDoe]

Aside from spidering sites to find out what they contain and their links OUT, another way to gleen information is to find who is linking INTO a site. In any search engine use the query link:http://www.xxxxx.xxx

ie: To find who links to www.alneda.com you would query using:

link:http://www.alneda.com

I have a specific way that I spider a site, but you can also use a search engine to do it. The query is site:http://www.xxxxx.xxx

To find more info on a site, the query is info:http://www.xxxxx.xxx
To find related sites, the query is related:http://www.xxxxx.xxx

Most of these queries will work in the bulk of search engines. Some queries are engine specific. Read the advanced search help file for any given engine for more information.

[Casey]

This is where I used to get most of the AQ statements. And they did have a video forums as most forums do.
hmmm, I wonder if they have the right people here.

I'm sure there would be some interesting log files from the forum. It would be very foolish to administrate or moderate a forum and be responsible for handling the hostage videos.

Most of the statements that were on this site were moved from another forum by a couple of regular members.

I do notice that a popular mail group has stopped sending out messages in the last couple of days though.

[Casey]

Bangalore cyber cafes get tough with netizens
AP
Bangalore, March 3, 2005

HUNDREDS OF cyber cafes in Bangalore have started recording personal details of visitors to comply with a new rule aimed at tracking perpetrators of online fraud, virus attacks and terrorism. Internet users have expressed concern that the law could lead to invasion of privacy and police harassment, while cafe owners fear a drop in customers.

The Karnataka government had passed a law last year requiring cyber cafe patrons to provide proof of identity and details such as name, age and address. However, the police began enforcing this law only this week.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1266414,0087.htm

[Casey]

March 13, 2005, 12:59AM

Jihadist group taking a stand on the Web
Some say the propaganda has a defensive tone
By ROBERT F. WORTH
New York Times
RESOURCES
Current time in Baghdad: 2:06 p.m. Sunday

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- It is an all-too-familiar ritual. Hours after an attack on an American convoy or an Iraqi police patrol, a brief statement begins appearing on Islamist Web sites claiming it was carried out by fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most-wanted man.

But in the past two weeks something has changed. Every day now, new messages appear on the Web offering encouragement to resistance fighters, and last week, al-Zarqawi's group started an Internet magazine, complete with photographs and 43 pages of text. Other Islamist groups are joining the effort, including one calling itself the Jihadist Information Brigade.

The Iraqi insurgency appears to have mounted a full-scale propaganda war.

And while the methods are not new -- most militant groups now rely on the Web to recruit new adherents -- the recent flurry of propaganda from Iraq has a distinctly defensive tone. The violence here has not let up, but the relatively peaceful elections, and the new movements toward democracy in other Arab countries, appear to have had a dispiriting effect on the insurgents, terrorism analysts say.

"I think they feel they are losing the battle," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, an American nonprofit group that monitors Islamist Web sites and news operations.

One recent Web posting, for instance, angrily disputed "the infidels' claim that the mujahedeen are weakened and their attacks are fewer."

It is hard, of course, to be sure of the authenticity of Internet postings. But American officials say those with the al-Zarqawi logo seem to be credible. RESOURCES
In other Iraq developments:

Soldier dies: The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier was killed Friday during operations in Anbar province in a nonhostile accident.

Pipelines attacked: Insurgents blew up oil pipelines near Samarra and Riyadh.

Policemen killed: In Mosul, gunmen killed three policemen and wounded a fourth at a funeral procession.

Friendly fire: Bulgarian military investigators said U.S. troops who killed a Bulgarian soldier had opened fire without warning but did not deliberately kill Pvt. Gardi Gardev on March 4.

The group, al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, is also making new efforts to cast itself as a defender of Muslim lives. After an attack Wednesday on a hotel in central Baghdad, the group quickly released an Internet statement claiming credit, and noting, "As for the time, the deadly attack should always be before the start of the working day so that it won't harm Muslims who are passing by."

Last week, the al-Zarqawi group denied news reports that it was responsible for a suicide car bomb in Hilla that killed 136 people. The attack was aimed at police and army recruits gathering outside a clinic, but many civilians, including women and children, were also killed.

To some extent, the insurgents are creating their own press coverage, and successfully. After Wednesday's hotel attack, for instance, one group quickly released its own videotape of the bombing, along with statements explaining why and how it chose that target. Within hours, all of it was appearing not only on Arabic Web sites and chat rooms but also on television stations and even in some Western news reports.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3082579

[Casey]

Security advices to the goers of the conversational forums

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Security advices to the goers of the conversational forums

He is no more becoming obscure on one of he not became to the conversational forums on the Internet from the importance and the great effect in the international media, until the greatest newspapers and the satellite channels became getting and follows the militants news from through them, and the militants have benefitted from the Internet - and throughout this service in particular - a praised benefiting contributed in a leading way in the removal of the blackout and breaking the media ring Al Shew / a crusade is the one that surrounded the jihad movement for long years .

And the Intelligences Bureau have become on their difference, feels with seriousness that, as that they saw in these conversational forums an opportunity they do not compensate for a hunt who the one that can be hunted from the terrorists or from my exhibitions this regime or this ... She started that seeks a diligent for the penetration of those conversational forums with putting some their elements to the rhythm by the one(s) who enables the defeat of it or with the pressing on a Malki those forums so that they co-operate with them in that, but the American intelligence agency declared recently - as came in the Si channel that that - that they plan for opening conversational forums by the Arabic for the jihad hunt .

And according to what preceded ; he became a duty on all who deals with the forums - whether from the militants who were entrusted with the publication of data and news and the publications or the supporters, or until from the observers to the militants news throughout those forums - after they became just the entrance and the visit of such sites a crime it succeeded to them some of the regimes are Al Taghoutia in the Islamic world -

We say ; a duty on this commitment became by a number of the preventive measures and a taking of severer caution and the caution at the interaction with them .

And between your hands the reading brother is several matters he does not overlook it at the participation in the forums - whether the one that adopts the jihad thought or that that entered it an interviewer a showing last party in it your opinion that it may pursue because of him the governments are Al Taghoutia on the basis of saying its first father ; Feraoun : { what show you except what see } - :

First :

They mentions that they are from their conversation in the forums not more than gelatinous personalities, may show a reverse what conceal . She may see a young man longing for the jihad, is still asking this and this about the way that connects him to the honour land, while he in the reality of his bitterer is not more than one of the police individuals, writes from the intelligences building !

And that clerk, that as long as he wrote the responses - and perhaps the deeply rooted articles are !! - defending the militants and dissolved about their honors, what he is except as the one before .. The enticement of the forum religious school tries so that they think better of it the doubt, then it requests from them the acquaintance for the cooperation in the call to the jihad ... The arrest of them .

And the aim is to is not absent from the mind that it is with ability oh it was the impersonation of any personality and very easily, then it does not trust a person through the forums at all ... He softened ! No the doubt that there are from them the truthful - and a concern many and the praise of Allah - but their discrimination becomes impossible, a thigh is what it benefits from those forums and sufficed, and remembered to it is not all what polishes a gold .

A second :

He enables the forum friend the moment your recording - but until your visit - getting the Internet address is Ip related to you . And hence he can specify of the place of the computer system that used it for the entrance to the forum accurately a big most of the time . And the specification of your place after getting the special Internet address returned not a difficult matter, but there is it many of the sites on the Internet it offers that service for free .

He softened ! The forum friend can carries out the cancellation of the feature of the recording of the Internet address, so that recording this number does not take place at the affiliation to the forum and at the writing in him after that, and this what advise on him the brothers from managers and the friends of those forums, but despite that the arrival at your number related to following the electronic mail that it used is possible at the affiliation to the forum and certainly a presenter will not object the service of the post from providing the security institutions with your number as long as the matter under the terrorists pursuit name !

And also the state is at the use of what is named Proxy mind .

Therefore then I prefer a solution of the interaction with this obstacle - if was I who carries out spreading news and data or the wanted to the returned Intelligences Bureau - that it carries out with the publication of what wants throughout the Internet cafes . And other more ways are found a security but the one that can not be mentioned here until we do not notify of them the enemy and in the common proverb ; Necessity is the Mother of Invention is !".

And the notification is not forgotten by us ; that many of the Internet cafes she herself became spying on their customers, and in particular these customers with the Islamic appearance, then must be sought the caution from this point ...

Advices and notifications :

1)The recording of the Internet address takes place in each participation that writes it, and is not only during your recording . A meaning that that the recording is from Internet cafe - for example - then the writing after that from your house system, will not prevent from recording your special number in the forum records .

2)The reaching of your special number ; not on condition that it takes place with the conspiring with the forum owners, but it is possible very that the penetration of servant Server on which the forum is hosted, and getting all subscribers statements take place, and easier than that, the request of a copy from the forum database from the hosting company is !

3)Most of the sites became prepared by programs to the statistics, they are recorded each movement the visitor carries out them, enclosed with his special number .

A third :

At the affiliation in any forum from you the recording system requests a number of the personal and general information - as the name and the country and the birth date - then it have not entered of any personal information by the right form but Qm with providing the system with wrong information for the camouflage, and if a person corresponded with you what from the forum end or one of the supervisors so that it asks you about a personal information under the pretext of the assurance of the calculation or other than that then beware from that its possession of them .

A fourth :

If was I who Wbshark enter the forums in them from the Internet cafes, then their variation and the departure for cafes distant from the circle of your residence are necessary for you .

Also the news publisher must maintains that he does not stay in the cafe a period exceeds the period of his spreading to the data or the news .. Since these cafes are from an easier what enables its pursuit and the arrival at it quickly for the knowledge of the institutions of the security of the tyrants of the numbers of Ip related to each one from them .

And the assurance becomes necessary after each session from wiping the files of the temporary Internet Temporary Internet Files, and the browsing history is History, and what it becomes by Al Koukiz Cookies, and hence the browsing closure is for ending the sessions Sessions that may enable who sits your remoteness for the same system from the entrance on your benefit in the forum, and a repetition does not forget operating the system after your replacement about him .

A note : most of the time, after wiping the browsing history it finds it he has disappeared, it returns entirely at the repetition of an operating the browsing, in this case the survey of the inputs is necessary for you manually .

A fifth :

Beware of the files that are published in the forums, in their folds of files for the espionage the mastery of the one that carries out their distribution of the espionage on your system and the knowledge of all hard disk contents may be Hard Disk .

A sixth :

If from you the formulation of any program during browsing the forum was requested then it does not agree on that at all, whatever it was the reason that mentions for you . There some of the programs enable the other party the espionage on the institution, as some minimized applications by the Java language Java Applet .

And actually .. One of them before a period have carried out the establishment of a forum that claimed that it is jihad and after the religious school started with the arrival at it, a request from the members is the formulation of a minor program and providing some of the programming applications in their systems under the pretext of the mastery from he browsed the forum, so that it carries out after a short period spreading many of the personal photos to some forum writers, with their complete names and the places of their residence, after it could thieve it from their special systems and came by that what it named a present to the institutions of family police Saloul !

And is worthy of us in this place the indication quickly of a rule very important at the interaction with the computer systems, and she is the non entrance or keeping by any a right personality information on the institution, as the name and the country and so on, whether during the appointment operation or other . Besides the personal photos ! And we will mention in a wider way this matter in coming articles God willing .

A seventh :

A request is from you one of them are your electronic mail of your correspondent to a special and important matter !, then she does not give it him at all, and I request from it your correspondent through the special messages in the forum if she was available, or then no .

And is worthy of us in this place the indication quickly of a rule very important at the interaction with the computer systems, and she is the non entrance or keeping by any a right personality information on the institution, as the name and the country and so on, whether during the appointment operation or other . Besides the personal photos ! And we will mention in a wider way this matter in coming articles God willing .

A seventh :

A request is from you one of them are your electronic mail of your correspondent to a special and important matter !, then she does not give it him at all, and I request from it your correspondent through the special messages in the forum if she was available, or then no .

An eighth :

At the recording in more than a conversational forum, does not take the password same Bastkhdm always, until in the state of the penetration of one of those forums it does not form your membership in the remainder of the forums an open, and we advise - strongly - by the non use of the name same at the recording in more than a forum, until the follow-up of your moves is not easy on the Internet between those forums, and if I wanted spreading the item same in more than a forum then he lengthened it by an expression - a moved from the forum of such - for example or by what indicates that you not I with the one who it spread first but you just a carrier .

A ninth :

No mentions any information of narrow spread its mention may lead to the recognition of your personality, or until the city that it lives . She causes an operation what then he remembered that you passed through that place in the so-and-so hour, then I saw Kit and Kit, or it says that banned the speech of the so-and-so sheikh ! Or she contacted the so-and-so sheikh ... And so on .

A tenth and finally :

If I was from the acquaintance amateurs and the collection of the friends, then it was confirmed that the jihad forums are not by the suitable place therefore !

This is what loved a notification who participates in the conversational forums on the Internet on it in such a hurry and after all this and before it : { then Allah is a wealth a keeping and he is the Most Merciful } .
The prayer is Lakhoukm Al Fqir Aba Thabet

[Casey]

Militants Defy Efforts To Ban Net Footage
http://xtramsn.co.nz/homepage2/imageView/0,,4234372,00.jpeg
View larger image (http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,12088-4234372,00.html)
Reuters

28/03/2005
Firouz Sedarat - Reuters

Islamic militants who want the world to witness their attacks and beheadings in Iraq have engineered new ways to ensure their videos appear on the Internet, defying efforts to banish them from cyberspace.

Leading insurgent groups such as Iraq's al Qaeda wing may struggle to find permanent hosts for their Web sites but can still point surfers to their gory videos and photographs from well-established and less sensational Islamist sites.

In one such Internet clip, a blast and a fireball shake the camera as militants repeat "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) on a video purporting to show this month's truck bombing of a Baghdad hotel. Stray dogs are seen running away from the scene.

Analysts say the fixed sites, which deny having ties to militants and allow postings by ordinary users, have become a reliable platform for militant groups.

"Gone are the times when Islamist sites had to constantly move around. They are more stable now and easier to find, providing a reliable meeting place," said a European defence analyst who declined to be named.

The sites are a powerful propaganda and recruiting tool for militant groups. Despite being a target of the US-led war on terror, they can quickly switch Web hosting companies and authorities have found it difficult to close them.

"It becomes an endless 'whack-a-mole' game, where a site is shut on one server but pops up on another," said Roger Cressey, a former White House official who heads a security consultancy.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq says it will soon launch its permanent site with news of its operations against "crusader" US forces.

That may sound like bad news for Western intelligence agencies, but one analyst said those seeking to limit the impact of the violent postings might prefer the Web sites to be stable.

"There are definite advantages from a security agency's point of view ... sites that are forced to move frequently are harder to keep track of."

Militant Media

For the first time, analysts said, the sites' continuity has provided militant groups with their own media. They have become as essential to news coverage as satellite televisions and news agencies, often breaking news of attacks and beheadings in Iraq.

Even Osama bin Laden's network appears to favour posting his messages online to ensure they are not edited by Arab television under US pressure to deny al Qaeda a propaganda platform.

"They don't need to go to TV stations or the Arab press. They don't need to invite a CNN journalist for an interview, like Osama bin Laden did in the 1990s. They can put messages online," the defence analyst said.

"It's probably just a question of time before we get a live transmission of a decapitation."

Amir Golestan, head of US Web hosting firm Micfo, said the FBI had probed his company's hosting of a top Islamist Web site, Al Ansar, which often carries major militant messages first.

"They (FBI) said if they find any legal issues they will contact us but we have not heard from them," Golestan said, adding that Al Ansar has since moved to another host.

Robert Corn-Revere, a Washington lawyer and expert in free-speech law, said that under US law companies cannot be held liable for hosting Web sites with anti-US content.

"The question is whether (a site) provides material support to a terrorist organisation," he said, adding authorities could then build a case using laws passed since the September 11 attacks.

London-based analyst Paul Eedle, who closely follows pro-al Qaeda sites, said: "Washington proclaims to stand for freedom of speech, so to campaign publicly for closing sites could rebound on it politically."

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-4234250,00.html

[Casey]

SAUDI ARABIA: 'VOICE OF THE JIHAD' EDITOR REPORTEDLY ARRESTED

Riyadh, 11 May (AKI) - A militant arrested two days ago in the Saudi capital Riyadh has been identified by the police as the man in charge of al-Qaeda's information operation in the country. The pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quotes a source from the Saudi interior ministry as saying he is the editor of the monthly on-line magazine 'Voice of the Jihad'. The Saudi national is reported to have been arrested after being injured during a gun battle on Monday.

A statement from the ministry said Abdel Aziz bin Rashid bin Hamdan al-Tawili al-Anzi is "one of the promoters of deviant ideology" ("deviant" being the word the Saudi authorities often use to refer to al-Qaeda), publishing statements from al-Qaeda's Saudi cell on the internet. The interior ministry also said his preaching and statements were used to defame peaceful Islamic principles "for evil purposes", and that al-Anzi said it was permissible to shed non-Muslim blood and kill security officers on religious grounds.

The most recent issue of 'Voice of the Jihad' came out at the end of April, after a pause of several months. It contained an editorial by Saud al-Otaibi - believed to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Iraq and one of Saudi Arabia's 'Most Wanted' list of 26 - who died at the beginning of April in clashes with the Saudi security forces.

In the on-line al-Qaeda magazine, al-Anzi signed his articles using three different names, Akhu min Ata Allah, Farhan bin Mashur al-Ruwili or Abdullah bin Naser al-Rashid. He is not one of the three people on the list of 26 who are still at large however.



(Slb/Aki)
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.165728020&par=0#

[Petronas]

Global Islamic Media Front, sponsored in part by... Napster

http://28.nu/group.cgi?l=gimf

The banner ad changes each time you load the page, so you may have to reload a couple of times to see this.

Posted by aaron at May 15, 2005 11:53 AM

http://internet-haganah.co.il/harchives/004131.html

[Casey]

Good read, it's not always all technology......

Networks and Netwars:
The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy
John Arquilla, David Ronfeldt (editors)

Available online at RAND
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1382/

[Casey]

US Steps up its War on Terror Online

19/06/2005
By Mohammed Al-Shafey



London, Asharq Al-Awsat- The US Department of State is embarking on a media offensive to counter the false information carried out by three Islamic websites it accuses of waging a misleading campaign against US interests. A newspage has, recently, been added to the Department’s Arabic language website, http://usinfo.state.gov/ar/Archive/2005/May/13-401696.html . Entitled “The Inaccurate Media”, it states that “this incorrect media, whether intentionally or not, deceives and creates suspicion and ill feeling. It also undermines the credibility of journalists.” “Our new webpage aims at rectifying false allegations about the United States in the media, exposing these sources, and helping readers to discover the truth about significant international events.” The three websites the US government considers major sources of misinformation, especially on events in Iraq , are: Islam Memo ( www.islammemo.cc ), the Free Arab Voice

(www.freearabvoice.org ), and Jihad Unspun (www.jihadunspun.net ).

Islam Memo is reserved the most criticism by the US authorities. It is an Arabic site which supports al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgents. According to the State Department’s statement, all three websites try to disseminate deceiving information, most of which disappears into cyberspace, while some allegations spread worldwide. It says Islam Memo is “perhaps, the internet site most suspect with regard to news from Iraq . For example, it carried a news item on 27th March 2005 , that announced the death of more that 88 US soldiers in Iraq . The news was translated into English by the Free Arab Voice site.” In reality, however, no soldiers were killed on that date. According to the website, in the period between 20 th and 29th March 2005 , a total of 334 soldiers were killed. The truth, however, points to the more conservative estimate of 8 military deaths.

Asharq Al Awsat repeatedly emailed the administrator of Islam Memo to discuss the US report but received no reply. Islamist sources in London described the report as “biased” against Islamic internet sites, adding that Islam Memo had lost more than one correspondent, killed in Iraq .



The US report also mentions the editor of Free Arab Voice, Mohammed Abu Nasr, who translates articles by Islamist websites to English, especially those of Islam Memo. According to the US government, Abu Nasser is a Communist sympathizer, judging by the content of his website, where he recently included a letter, dated 1935, by the former Syrian Communist Party Leader, Khaled Bakdash, because he believed the letter carried “contemporary repercussions”.

Abu Nasr translates a number of news items posted on Islam Memo, on a daily basis, and publishes them on his own site as reports from Iraq . The information appears elsewhere on the internet, for example on Jihand Unspun. Articles carried on Free Arab Voice are, at times, provocative with titles such as “The Battle for Terminology in the Arab-Zionist Conflict”, “Who Are the Revisionist Historians?”, “Why Should We Concern Ourselves With the Holocaust?”, “Who Benefits from the Attack Against Shia Mosques in Iraq?”, “The Resistant Media: A new Perspective”, and “Human Bombs in the Balance”.

One example of the misinformation propagated by Islam Memo, according to the US Department of State, is a letter that appeared on the internet site on 18 th December of last year. In the letter, a woman held at Abu Ghraib Prison, West of Baghdad, named Fatima , alleges that she was raped along with 13 other Iraqi women.

In its latest campaign, the State Department is adamant that the events described in the letter are totally false. Accordingly, Fatima never existed as only six women were held at Abu Ghraib, temporarily, between July and mid December 2004. Two female detainees fell ill and were transferred to hospital and the others were held for no more than 10 days and none were subjected to sexual abuse.

Despite the letter being fake, it was published on several Islamist websites and circulated by emails as it subject matter was offensive. Jihad Unspun published the full letter on 24th December 2004 . For its part, Islam Memo claimed that Fatmia had been killed during an attack on the prison earlier that day. Since Fatima was now dead, it was now impossible to verify the claims made in her letter. Abu Ghraib prison hadn’t even been attacked on the above mentioned date.

As for Jihad Unspun, the US government states that it is owned and run by a “Canadian woman who embraced Islam after the events of 11 September 2001 ”. The English language website regularly posts the latest statements by bin Laden and al Qaeda, most recently a study on the strategy of the organization until 2020.



The government accused the website of a history of publishing false information.

On 22nd November 2004 , it published a report on an attack on a US base in Baghdad which killed 270 soldiers. In reality, no one was killed. It has also praised the reliability of the news coverage on Islam Memo, for example at the end of last year. Two months later, however, in February 2005, Jihad Unspun expressed reservations on the credibility of Islam Memo. It published a letter it had sent to the under fire website, stating “familial hostility is brewing. Islam Memo is currently under stack from several Arab websites. Your critic’s voices are becoming louder.”

All three websites devoted a lot of space to a misleading story on the US of Mustard Gas by the US Military when it attacked the city of Fallujah . The false report was later carried by the Cuban News Agency “Prensa Latin” and repeated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Jihad Unspun went as far as publicly asking questions about Islam Memo, saying “why are the numbers of US casualties reported by Mujahedeen websites far less than those published on Islam Memo?”



Abu Mubarak, the manager of Islam Memo, defended his internet site, telling Asharq Al Awsat, in a telephone conversation from Riyadh , “We are extremely professional in our work in Iraq . We respect ourselves and our readers and report correct information.” He revealed that eleven correspondents had lost their lives while reporting on the insurgency in Iraq . Islam Memo, he added, has 33 reporters, mainly located in major Iraqi cities. Abu Mubarak believes it is this accuracy that has angered the US government. He clarified that the site is launched from a server in Canada . As for financing the website, Abu Mubarak said it depended on revenue from advertising. Another individual who works for Islam Memo told Asharq Al Awsat “What else would you expect from the US government with regard to Islam Memo?” He then switched his mobile phone off, because of a reported battery failure. http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?id=500&section=1

[Casey]

Cyberspace the new war frontier

BY SHAHARUDIN ISMAIL AND ZAHRI YUNOS



CYBERSPACE is an ever-expanding global digital network which links many aspects of life, including business and communications.

While new technologies allow for enormous gains in efficiency, productivity and communications, they also create new threats from those who harbour bad intentions towards us.

The same infrastructure that we utilise to transmit information creates new opportunities for those engaging in cyberwar.

The cyberwar being waged today involves the exploitation of ICT (information and communications technology), which adversaries might use as a new attacking platform.

This is because many computer systems in the world are interconnected through a public telecommunications infrastructure or the Internet.

In the article Cyberwar and Netwar: New Modes, Old Concepts, of Conflict, John J. Arquilla and David F. Ronfeldt refer to cyberwar as ”disrupting or destroying information and communication systems and turning the balance of information and knowledge in one’s favour, especially if the balance of forces is against one.”

Today, cyberspace is the new war frontier whenever there are conflicts between countries.

The popular method of a cyberattack is the defacement of websites. Web defacement is a malicious activity in which a website is “vandalised.”

Often the hacker replaces the site’s content with a specific political or social message. The hacker might even erase all the content from the site by relying on known security vulnerabilities to access the site’s content.

Below are some cases of cyberwar as reported in the media.

China-Taiwan
During the Taiwanese presidential elections in August and September 1999, pro-Chinese hackers acted against Taiwan.

They compromised about 165 Taiwanese websites, mainly defacing them, over the two-month period.

Their ultimate goal was to negatively affect and bring down Taiwan’s infrastructure.

Among the targeted sites were those of electricity, economic institutions, telecommunications and air-traffic control.

India-Pakistan
India and Pakistan have in the past engaged in cyberprotest in disputes involving national and ethnic differences.

After a cease-fire in the Kashmir Valley in 2000, hackers of both countries continued with hostile activities.

A group known as G-Force Pakistan was the most active hacker group claiming involvement in the cyberwar.

The pro-Pakistan hackers defaced more than 500 Indian websites, while only one Pakistani website was hacked into by the Indians.

United States-China
The United States and China have also been involved in cyberwar especially in 1999 and 2001.

These cyberwars typically occur after incidents of military conflict on the battlefield. The first cyberwar began after the United States accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, during the Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) air campaign in May 1999.

Many of US websites were defaced and massive e-mail campaigns were executed to gain sympathy and support for China.

For example, the US Departments of Energy and the Interior, and the US National Park Service suffered website defacements.

The White House website was taken down for three days after it was continually mail-bombed.

The next cyberwar, which occurred in May 2001, resulted from an incident where a Chinese fighter was lost at sea after colliding with a US naval reconnaissance plane.

It also coincided with the second anniversary of the Chinese embassy bombing by the United States in Belgrade and the traditionally celebrated May Day and Youth Day in China.

The attacks were led by the Honkers Union of China (HUC) who defaced and crashed over 100 websites, mainly government and commercial sites.

The Chinese hackers posted pictures of the dead Chinese pilot Wang Wei with profane messages calling for the downfall of the United States.

Pro-United States hackers responded with similar defacements to over 300 Chinese websites.

Palestine-Israel
The cyberwar between the Israeli and Palestinian hackers began five years ago when the prolonged peace talks between the two countries broke down.

In 2000, about 40 Israeli websites and at least 15 Palestinian sites suffered defacements at the hands of hackers.

The Israeli hackers performed denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on websites belonging to the Palestinians.

The pro-Palestinian hackers hit Israeli websites and posted messages such as “Free Palestine” or “Free Kashmir.”

In this cyberwar, it was reported that the pro-Palestinian hackers got help from the G-Force Pakistan hackers.

During this time, several US websites were also hacked into by the pro-Palestinian hackers. The hackers took down a lobbyist group’s website, posting online group membership information and credit card numbers.

Japan-South Korea
During the first week of April 2001, pro-South Korean hackers attacked Japanese organisations responsible for the approval of a new history textbook.

The textbook allegedly glossed over actions committed by the Japanese Forces during World War II.

The perceived reluctance of Japan to accept responsibility for its actions during World War II triggered anger from the South Koreans.

It was reported that a majority of the hackers were South Korean University students. The students crashed several websites, including those belonging to Japan’s Education Ministry, Liberal Democratic Party and the publishing company responsible for the textbook.

Japan-China
In early August 2001, pro-Chinese hackers targeted Japanese websites after Japan’s Prime Minister visited a controversial war memorial, the Yasukuni Shrine.

In a short period of time, Chinese hackers defaced several websites belonging to Japanese companies and research institutions.

Tensions have been rising again between Japan and China this year when the Japanese Government announced that its companies would have the right to drill for oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

The situation worsened in April after the Japanese Government approved a history textbook that China says whitewashes Japan’s wartime record during World War II.

Several Japanese government websites experienced problems where access to the affected homepages was hindered. It was reported that a Chinese website had urged Internet users to flood Japanese servers with irrelevant data.

Malaysia-Indonesia
A maritime territorial dispute in the Sulawesi Sea between Malaysia and Indonesia had moved into cyberspace in March as Indonesian hackers launched cyberattacks on Malaysian websites.

Many of the websites affected, including several government department websites, were defaced with hate messages against the Government of Malaysia.

MyCERT (www.mycert.org.my (http://www.mycert.org.my/)) reported that 256 Malaysian websites were hacked in the first quarter of 2005, compared with only 42 in the preceding quarter.

Conclusion
The impact of web defacements is great. It not only affects a country’s security, but also its economy and culture.

Hackers can replace the information on websites with controversial content. They can even take full control of these websites and manipulate the information.

Hence, there is no longer integrity and confidentiality of information. If such cyberattacks become more rampant, Internet users could lose their trust in the Internet as a platform for online business especially when it comes to transactions using credit cards.

Hackers could also place inappropriate pictures on affected websites. This could embarrass the owners of the websites especially if the site belongs to a government or any highly-reputable organisation.

Web administrators must take full responsibility to protect their systems from cyberattacks. They need to patch their systems regularly in order to avoid vulnerabilities from being exploited by hackers.

Web administrators must also play an active role in ensuring that they are familiar with the latest trends and security issues in order to protect their systems from cyberattacks.

Note: Shaharudin Ismail is Policy Research Executive (Strategic Planning & Adminstration) and Zahri Yunos is Strategic Planning Manager at the National ICT Security and Emergency Response Centre.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2005/6/21/itfeature/11191981&sec=itfeature

[Casey]

Cyber-jihadists weave a dangerous web
(AFP)

27 October 2005


PARIS - A new proposed anti-terror law in the US, presented on Wednesday, aims to clamp down on terrorist activity carried out via the Internet as the Al Qaeda network develops increasingly dangerous online activities.

The proposed law would introduce measures such as extending the period for which cybercafes have to keep records of Internet connection data, but faces a tough battle against “cyber-jihadists” who avoid being tracked through cunning and the fluid nature of the Internet, according to experts.

Terrorists use the Internet for “communication, recruitment, planning” and, importantly, for military instruction, said Rita Katz, head of the Washington-based institute Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), which monitors Islamist websites.
“Everything is there, it replaces the training camps,” she said.

One method attributed to the suspected head of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, is the “dead letter box” system: someone creates an email account, gives the password to several members of a group and communicates by saving messages in a draft messages folder without sending them.

Communication by this method cannot be monitored because government systems for tracking emails work only if someone sends an email, said Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
“It was used by Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of 9/11, to communicate with the global network,” Gunaratna said.

The people behind some sites promoting terrorism “are more savvy than a lot of us normal typical internet users,”, said Rebecca Givner-Forbes, an intelligence analyst who monitors the Internet for the Terrorism Research Centre, a company employed by the US government.
“They often use Japanese and Chinese upload web pages because they don’t ask for an email address or any information from the person uploading a file,” she said. “They’ve become very savvy about how they evade detection on the Web.”

According to Givner-Forbes, the most common method used by serious Islamist websites is password-protected online message boards that only members can use.

“Most recently they have been leveraging the net more and more to circulate terrorist tactical instructions, training manuals, explosives recipes,” Givner-Forbes said.

“We’ve seen recently more sophisticated material such as instructional videos where you see someone going through all the steps needed to make a device or an explosive and instructions are printed very clearly on the screen,” she added. “It’s just like on the food channel when someone cooks a recipe.”

If terrorist sites are attacked, the people running them can republish copies.
Many Internet trackers are disadvantaged by not speaking Arabic and people running terrorist sites “may just change the colour of their site and change the writing at the top, call it something else and change the format. It’s the same material,” she said.
Cyber-jihadists also have techniques to hide their identity and hack into sites, like the germ weapons expert Mustapha Setmariam Nassar who circulated a manual via an American commercial server.

“When you take down a website, from my own experience, the next day it’s up again from a new server and not only that, it’s not from the US any more but it turns itself to a password-protected website,” said Katz.

“It just makes things more difficult for government agents and for people that monitor websites,” she added.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/October/theworld_October682.xml&section=theworld

[Casey]

This should be a very interesting case.

'Jihadist' computer expert cleared for extradition to US
By Sam Knight

A computer expert from South London who is wanted in America for running a cluster of websites that allegedly supported terrorism and attacks on US servicemen is to be extradited, Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has decided.

Babar Ahmad, 31, from Tooting, was arrested in August 2004 on an American extradition warrant. In October last year, the US Justice Department indicted him for using the internet to support the Taleban and Chechen jihadists, money-laundering and conspiring to kill persons in a foreign country.

Mr Ahmad has always protested his innocence and his supporters have conducted a vociferous campaign in his defence. In May, Mr Ahmad, who is in custody at Woodhill high security prison near Milton Keynes, ran for parliament in the Labour constituency of Brent North, winning 685 votes.

But today the Home Office confirmed that he would be extradited to face trial in Connecticut, where he faces life imprisonment if convicted of any of the charges against him. One of the internet service providers used by Mr Ahmad was headquartered in the state.

"There have been a couple of extensions in this case and having looked carefully at all the representations, the Home Secretary decided there aren’t any bars to this extradition," said a Home Office spokeswoman this morning.

In May, Bow Street Magistrates' Court approved Mr Ahmad's extradition after receiving assurances from US authorities that they would not seek the death penalty, torture him in a third country or declare him an "enemy combatant" and imprison him at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.

But in his ruling, Judge Timothy Workman said that Mr Ahmad's case raised complicated issues that should be explored by the High Court. Since 2003, American authorities have been able to request the extradition of British citizens without having to present any evidence in court.

Mr Ahmad's campaign reacted with dismay to today's news, promising to challenge the Home Secretary's decision in the High Court. If necessary, Mr Ahmad can take his case to the House of Lords.

Speaking from prison, Mr Ahmad said: "This decision should only come as a surprise to those who thought that there was still justice for Muslims in Britain. I entrust my affairs to Allah and His Words from the Koran."

MPs also expressed reservations about Mr Clarke's decision to extradite Mr Ahmad.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, complained that Britain's extradition treaty with America allows US authorities to request the extradition of British citizens without presenting any evidence of their guilt, whereas "there is a constitutional right on the part of American citizens not to be extradited in the same way".

"It is a treaty which does not have reciprocity," Sir Menzies told the ITV News Channel. "It is even worse than that, because we have ratified the treaty in this country, we have changed our domestic legislation to conform to it, but the United States Senate has still failed to ratify the treaty."

Mr Ahmad's local MP, Sadiq Khan, the Labour member for Tooting, said that he should be tried in Britain: "The allegations are that Babar Ahmad committed these criminal offences whilst in the UK, whilst a British citizen, and whilst in London," he told BBC Radio. "If that be the case the obvious question is why can’t and why shouldn’t he be tried in the UK?"

First arrested by British police in December 2003 but released without charge, Mr Ahmad is accused of running a network of websites from 1997 to 2004 that supported "terrorist causes" in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

On www.azzam.com, a website he allegedly ran from an address in Fountain Road, Tooting, Mr Ahmad told readers that: "Muslims must use every means at their disposal to undertake military and physical training for jihad."

The US Government alleges that Mr Ahmad posted firearms training and travel advice for young Muslims seeking to fight in Chechnya and Afghanistan and sought to raise money for the Taleban and Chechen rebel groups. He is also accused of distributing CDs and videos glorifying jihad.

According to his indictment, e-mails from Mr Ahmad's accounts included "discussions regarding donations; shipments of gas masks; procurement of night vision goggles; safe routes into Afghanistan and the type of personnel needed to support the jihad".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1874813,00.html

[Casey]

Blair’s ban fails to silence Muslim preachers of hate

Cyber / Terrorism
Date: Nov 19, 2005 - 07:19 PM
The Sunday Times November 20, 2005

ISLAMIC extremists are targeting British Muslims with violent Al-Qaeda propaganda, in defiance of Tony Blair’s announcement four months ago that he would clamp down on preachers of hate.

London-based foreign extremists are using websites to post video footage of suicide operations and attacks by insurgents against coalition forces in Iraq. There are also postings of the execution of Russian soldiers by mujaheddin rebels in Chechnya.

There is growing exasperation among the Saudi authorities about the government’s apparent reluctance to tackle two Saudi citizens who are responsible for some of the most blatant incitement.

Muhammad al-Massari, a London-based Saudi extremist, has been allowing the forum pages of his website — www.tajdeed.net — to be used by terrorist groups. They include Al-Qaeda in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was responsible for the murder of Ken Bigley, the British hostage.

A second Saudi, Saad al-Fagih, uses his website and satellite radio broadcasts to incite an uprising against the House of Saud.

Ferej Alowedi, the Saudi chargé d’affaires in London, said: “We have been requesting the British authorities to have them extradited. We can give written assurance that we will not execute or torture them.”

Last week The Sunday Times disclosed that al-Massari’s website carried an attack on the Queen as one of the “severest enemies of Islam” from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s second in command. This was in defiance of a declaration by Blair that the “rules of the game” were changing. He said after the London bombings: “The new grounds [for deportation] will include fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person’s beliefs, or justifying or validating such existence.”

Yet al-Massari’s website, which was shut down in May, has returned and has messages that incite Muslims to join the global jihad, and glorify the Al-Qaeda attack in Amman that left at least 60 people dead on November 9.

The Saudi dissident advocates the beheading of homosexuals and describes the September 11 attacks as the “blessed conquest in New York and Washington”. Al-Massari was not available for comment.

In his response to the terrorist killing of 52 commuters on July 7, Blair also announced that the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir and the offshoots of Al-Muhajiroun would be banned.

He said: “Those that. . . incite hatred or engage in violence against our country and its people have no place here.” A few days after his announcement, 10 foreign preachers were arrested. They are in police custody awaiting court hearings about their deportations.

But, more than four months later, Hizb ut-Tahrir remains active and is lobbying Muslims to challenge the new anti-terror legislation.

Al-Ghuraaba and the Saviour Sect, two offshoots of Al-Muhajiroun, which had kept a low profile since the summer, announced on Friday that they had merged into a stronger organisation.

The new group — Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah (ASWJ) [Followers of the Prophet] — is headed by Anjem Choudary, who was second in command to the cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed before Al-Muhajiroun disbanded early this year.

Bakri is in Lebanon now. Although he was widely thought to be the first cleric to be deported after Blair’s announcement, he managed to slip out of Britain in August.

At a press conference this weekend, the leaders of ASWJ mocked Blair’s efforts to ban them.

Abu Izzedine, also known as Omar Brooks and a prominent member, said: “Blair decided to ban us almost a year after we disbanded. The British government is one of the worst governments on the planet.”

He previously said of the London bombings: “I would never denounce the bombings, even if my own family was to suffer, because we always stand with the Muslims, regardless of the consequences.”

Another member of ASWJ, Abu Yahya, denounced the Queen. He said: “The Queen is enemy to Islam and Muslims. We see in reality her actions all around the earth, her forces, army, navy, her air force bombing, destroying Muslims, killing our families, destroying our properties and occupying our land.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1880238,00.html

[Casey]

Pledging allegiance to Bin Laden online

Islamic Internet forums publish declaration on opening month-long signing of oath of loyalty to Bin Laden, al-Qaeda elite on Internet
Roee Nahmias

A document distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reveals that Islamic Internet forums have recently published a declaration on opening a month dedicated to the signing of an electronic "B'ayah" (in Arabic – an oath of allegiance to a Muslim leader by a Muslim) on the Internet, as a pledge of allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his officials. The initiative is expected to end on December 13.

The document reveals that the initiative was published on the al-hesbah website, which is known as an authentic Islamic website with no identification of the individual behind it, who is only known by the nickname "al-'Aashek Liljihad" (lover of Jihad)***.

These are the main points of the declaration as it appears on the website:

"I invite you to the first day of the month of the great swearing of an oath of loyalty to the commander of the Muslim armies, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, and to the commanders of the global jihad: Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and to all the jihad fighters.

"Oh God, you need this oath of loyalty, the oath of death for Allah that will terrorize the infidels and earn the jihad fighters in particular, and the Muslims in general, reward in the world to come...

"Moreover, for this oath of loyalty to death it is not necessary for you to die now - but in the near future, the very near future, Allah willing, we must all join this blessed convoy, particularly since we have sworn an oath of loyalty.

"This (signing of this) oath of loyalty will continue for one month, and will be posted in all the forums so that the number of oath-takers will be (as) great (as possible), and so that Osama bin Laden will have an army in Afghanistan, an army in Iraq, and a massive army in the waiting list on the Internet pages.

May Allah preserve him

"This is the Internet that Allah operates in the service of jihad and of the mujahedoun (Jihad fighters), and that has become (a tool in service of) your interest - such that half the mujahedoun's battle is waged on the pages of the Internet, which is the only outlet for passing announcements to the mujahedoun.

"Anyone who has already sworn an oath of loyalty is asked not to do so again, because at the end of the month there will be a count of all those who took the oath..."

The document's writers note that the response to this initiative has so far been minimal and that the oath-takers are identifying themselves by nicknames only.

At the bottom of the oath forms appears the name of the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF).

The oath form ends with the following pledge of allegiance: "We swear loyalty to Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may Allah preserve him, and to the commanders of the global jihad, Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar, and Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and all the Jihad fighters. (This is) an oath of death for Allah. Signed: (Surfer's name)."
(11.21.05, 09:48)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3172405,00.html

***This poster has been on various forums for as long as I have been reading them.

[rectar]

Nyet to Ynet....

[Petronas]

See Footnote #2 regarding GIMF.

Islamist Website Design Contest: Winner Fires Missiles at U.S. Army Base in Iraq
December 1, 2005

Announcements posted on the Islamist Internet forums are usually connected to ongoing terrorist activities, such as claims of responsibility for attacks, recorded speeches by leaders, etc. Occasionally, there are also announcements of a propagandist nature that are difficult to attribute with any certainty to specific terrorist organizations, and whose authenticity is hard to establish, such as the "oath of loyalty to bin Laden" initiative [1], and announcements posted by the Global Islamic Media Front (which has acknowledged that it is not associated with Al-Qaeda). [2]


Contest for Designing a Website for a Terrorist Organization

This is another example of the online propaganda campaign on Islamist forums whose authenticity is difficult to establish.

The information bureau of Jaish Al-Taifa Al-Mansura("The Army of the Victorious Group"), a Sunni terrorist organization operating in Iraq, announced a contest for designing the organization's website, and stated that the prize would be, in addition to reward from Allah, an opportunity to fire missiles via computer at a U.S. army base in Iraq.

The announcement was posted on a number of Islamic websites, primarily on the Al-Hesbah forum www.alhesbah.org [3] [hosted in Airzona] [4], and can also be viewed as a Flash document at

http://heretic.maid.to/cgi-bin/stored/serio0835.swf

The following are excerpts from the announcement:

"To the brothers who seek reward [from Allah] and to the honorable people [who visit] the forums of the blessed Al-Hesbah network and of the Global Islamic Media Front:

"The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group has announced a contest for designing and constructing a special website for the Army. The site must include:

"1. The motto of the Army of the Victorious Group.

"2. The Army's ideology, as posted on the Al-Hesbah network, and the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad about the victorious group. [5]

"3. Communiqués issued by the Army that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.

"4. Videos of the Army's operations that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.

"In addition, the site must include all materials connected to the Army that have appeared on Al-Hesbah, in newspapers or elsewhere. [The site] must match the good reputation of the Army, of jihad and of the jihad fighters, and [it must] defeat the Crusader information [channels].

"After selecting the best design, the Army's information bureau will notify the winner.

"The contest will continue for a month, and there will be two prizes for the best design:

"1. Reward from Allah for blessed work in the service of jihad and the jihad fighters.

"2. The winner will fire three long-range missiles from any location in the world at an American army base in Iraq, by pressing a button [on his computer] with his own blessed hand, using technology developed by the jihad fighters, Allah willing. The information bureau will announce the winner after coordinating with the military bureau of the Army...

"Dear brothers in Allah, this blessed move aims to develop the skills and abilities of the brothers who take part in the competition to design a website which befits the Army's good reputation, its jihad operations and its fighting [activities].

"The most important thing is the glad tidings that the jihad fighters of the Army of the Victorious Group bring to our Muslim brothers, and to the [entire] Islamic nation, regarding the development of accurate and effective missiles, and also, as we promised you, regarding the use of computer technology and [the ability] to fire [missiles] by remote control from any location in the world, by the grace of Allah.

"This is also an opportunity for our brothers outside Iraq to join their brothers on the front line in Iraq, the land of the frontier and of jihad, and to [participate in] destroying the strongholds of polytheism and heresy.

"The winner will be allowed to document his [firing] experience after it is implemented and publicized.

"[Signed:] The Information Bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group; Saturday, November 5, 2005."

[B]Contest Postponed

"On November 18, 2005, the information bureau issued another announcement postponing the contest deadline. [6] This announcement said: 'The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group announces a one-month extension of the special contest for designing and constructing the website for the Army of the Victorious Group.'

"The [extension] comes in response to a request from the honorable competitors, and aims to allow the maximum number of brothers to participate in the contest. It also reflects the desire of the Army's top leadership that [individuals] from outside Iraq will participate in jihad operations against the occupier, and that, for the first time, they will do this from the international jihad arena by firing long-range missiles by remote control."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] On this private initiative urging Muslims to swear an oath of loyalty to bin Laden, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1027: http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP102705.

[2] GIMF public relations bureau director Saif Al-Din Al-Kinani said on the GIMF Internet newscast Sout Al-Khilafa that his organization was not affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

[3] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=38119

http://www.alfirdaws.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7600 (Link no longer active).

[4] According to http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=alhesbah.org: Domains by Proxy, Inc., 15511 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, Phone:+1.4806242599

[5] Various hadiths mention the "victorious group," such as the hadith that appears in Ibn Majah's collection of hadiths, in which the Prophet Muhammad says: "A group from my ummah [Islamic nation] is still victorious. Those who separated from them will not harm them until the Day of Resurrection."

[6] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=39815
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD103805

[Casey]

Winnipeg company inadvertently hosts al-Qaeda website
Last Updated Dec 7 2005 02:01 PM CST
CBC News

A young Winnipeg entrepreneur is trying to clear his name after connections to the international terrorist organization al-Qaeda were published in a local newspaper.

Justin Fitzpatrick, 19, runs his small Netgo Web Hosting business from his home in Winnipeg's St. Vital neighbourhood.

For a short time in October, his company hosted a website featuring video content of al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Fitzpatrick, who declined an on-air interview, explained to CBC that his Netgo Web Hosting site allows people from around the world to purchase space to host their sites.

In turn, Fitzpatrick rents the server space to host those sites from a company in Dallas.

Someone who wants to host a site through Fitzpatrick simply fills out a form online, agrees to certain terms and conditions about the content, and agrees to pay a small monthly fee by credit card. Once the credit card is approved by an external company – a process that generally takes only a few minutes – the person has the ability to start putting web content online.

When Fitzpatrick saw the Arabic-language text and videos on the website he was hosting, he consulted with the company in Dallas. After reviewing the material, Fitzpatrick says the Dallas company's legal department recommended he remove the material.

Fitzpatrick, stunned by what he had heard, removed the site and refunded the $4.95 monthly fee to the credit card. All told, he says he hosted the material for about 10 days.

Fitzpatrick says he has no idea why the people behind the site targeted his company, which hosts a total of 15 to 20 websites – a small player in the world of website hosting. He speculates he was chosen specifically because his is a small company, with fewer eyes on the content.

Fitzpatrick says he has not been contacted by law-enforcement officials about the content, and he considers the matter closed.

http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/story/mb_web-hosting-20051207.html

[Casey]

Al-Qaeda Unlikely to Cyber Attack
Techtree News Staff
Dec 8, 2005


Al-Qaeda might have master-minded the 9/11 terror-strike, that erased the Twin Towers from New York's landscape forever however the terrorist outfit lacks the mind or muscle to launch a high-profile cyber-attack on the power domains of the US. Or so says a top FBI official...

FBI assistant director, and head of its Cyber Division, Louis Reigel, has said that Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist groups still do not possess the ability to disable power plants, airports and other "critical infrastructure" of the US through the Internet.

The same view has been endorsed by Peter Trahon, head of the FBI unit handling computer intrusions, who said that as of now the FBI was not aware of any plan to attack the US infrastructure.

Reigel did however say that foreign governments are likely to be behind many of the hacking attacks on computers which contain military or technology secrets. He said that the FBI had reason to suspect that these hacking attacks are state-sponsored, though there is no hard evidence for the same.

According to Reigel, the attacks happen because it is far cheaper for a country to steal information and use the same information to develop technologies that have taken America years to develop. Reigel declined to reveal which countries he thought might be involved, but reportedly added that there were "not just one or two".

The FBI official said that although Chinese hackers were thought to have copied sensitive material from hundreds of US government computer systems over the past few years, there was no definite proof of involvement, and as such he did not raise the issue on a recent visit to China.

Commenting on the recent attacks by a version of the Sober computer worm, which disguised itself as a message from the FBI, Reigel said that the FBI had enough information to track down the author of that worm which "almost killed the FBI system".

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=69641&cat_id=582

[Petronas]

Al-Qaeda Explains Amman Bombings
December 8, 2005

Following the November 9, 2005 hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, Al-Qaeda in Iraq posted several communiqués on Islamist forums in an attempt to explain the killing of innocent Muslims. The first of these communiqués [1], posted November 10, was a mere claim of responsibility for the bombings. The second communiqué [2], also from November 10, explained the reasons for choosing the particular locations that were targeted. The third [3], from November 11, gave details on the operation and on the individuals who carried it out.

On November 18, the organization again referred to the bombings: Al-Qaeda Leader in Iraq Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi issued an audio recording in his own voice, in which he reiterated the reasons for the attacks. Addressing the Muslims directly, he explained that that the killing of the celebrants at the wedding feast was totally accidental, and that his organization would never even consider harming innocent Muslims. Al-Zarqawi also set preconditions for stopping the terrorist attacks in Jordan, and threatened to assassinate King Abdallah.

After the bombings, several Islamist forums re-posted an audio recording from April 2004 in which al-Zarqawi had commented on Al-Qaeda's plan to carry out a chemical attack in Jordan - a plan that had been uncovered and foiled by the Jordanian security apparatuses. The recording presented a list of arguments explaining why Jordan must be targeted, and also stated that the Jordanian intelligence service had lied when it claimed that the aim of the planned attack was to murder Muslims and innocent people. In the recording, al-Zarqawi further stated:"We Muslims would not dare to shed [even] a drop of sacred [Muslim] blood unlawfully; [we will let] our throats [be slashed] before yours; we will sacrifice our lives for you, and we spill our blood to protect Islam and the Muslims."

The following are excerpts from the communiqués and recordings:

.......

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD104305

The article is 8 pages long, so I am not posting it here in its entirety.

[al-Canine]

Terrorists in Cyberspace

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF | Op-Ed Columnist

Until you see a video of Iraqi insurgents taking a terrified, hogtied man and sawing off his head with a butcher knife, you don't know what "blood-curdling" truly means.

Yet the jihadis themselves release these "beheading videos" on the Internet as part of their booming propaganda machine, and they are wrenching not only for their brutality but also because they underscore the insurgents' increasing technological edge. If there's any area where we should have the supreme advantage fighting terrorism, it's the Internet - yet Islamic extremists sometimes run rings around us in cyberspace, using it to recruit and train terrorists and to communicate with each other in amazingly sophisticated ways.

When insurgents stage an attack these days, they sometimes film it from several angles so as to make better propaganda, which they then distribute on jihadi Web sites and on DVD's. Aside from promotional videos like those, there are the how-to variety, like one with step-by-step instructions for making a suicide vest. At the end, the filmmakers made a makeshift bus and put the vest on a mannequin to blow it up.

"The person who is wearing the explosive pouch, when entering the bus and wanting to blow himself up, his face must be to the front and his back to the rear," the video instructs. That's because there's much less explosive power on the sides.

The jihadis also use the Internet for communications. They know that the American intelligence community uses sophisticated computer programs that scan e-mail messages, so some of them share a single e-mail account, and the person writing the message doesn't send it but saves it as a draft. Then the recipient logs in and reads the draft without it ever actually being transmitted.

Likewise, the jihadis have communicated on gaming forums and even once on a bike forum. Sometimes they use the "live chat" function on Japanese gaming sites, where the only eavesdroppers are teeny-boppers.

Iraq's election last week was a great success, but it's still much too early to see how that will play out. What is clear is that Islamic extremists are not the troglodytes we think they are, and we need to retool if we're going hold our own.

Jihadi Web sites change their U.R.L.'s constantly and are often password-protected, and they may block access to viewers in Western countries. They're also language-protected, in that the communications are in Arabic - and the U.S. intelligence community has a desperate shortage of people with good Arabic skills. Sometimes the jihadis simply spell U.R.L.'s in the Arabic script, so that Arabs understand the address but U.S. computers or nonnative speakers may not. What they're not shy about is galvanizing terrorists.

"My Muslim brothers, you know that the enemies of Islam are malicious to Islam," one person wrote on a jihadi site. "What helps them is their knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics and programming languages, as well as their knowledge in the sciences of cartography, electronics and others. So if you possess knowledge in any of the aforementioned sciences that would benefit Islam and Muslims, say so."

Sure enough, one woman replied that she was skilled in English, cytology and molecular biology. A man said that he would be happy to share his skill in chemistry and explosives.

"There is this expectation that they're not being watched, or that if they are it won't be translated for six months," said one expert who monitors the traffic for the U.S. government, and who shared these examples partly to help draw attention to the problem.

Unfortunately, the insurgents are right - they often aren't being watched. The intelligence community has historically downplayed Osint (open-source intelligence). Robert Gates, the former C.I.A. director, once told me ruefully that intelligence is sometimes undervalued if it hasn't been stolen.

We also need more flexibility. In parts of the intelligence community, it's very difficult to get authority to pretend to be a jihadi on a forum, which is the only way to get anywhere. To avoid tipping off terrorists, I've been asked not to mention one other similarly foolish constraint.

So if we want to fight back effectively, the focus needn't be on preserving the right to "water board" detainees. A crucial first step is to patrol cyberspace much more aggressively - because we seem to be losing ground against terrorists in our own high-tech cyberspace backyard.

Copyright 2005The New York Times Company

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/opinion/20kristof.html

[Casey]

Waging war through the Internet

Date: Jan 15, 2006 - 12:00 AM

America is far more vulnerable to terrorists who hack systems than missions to blow things up
John Arquilla

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Over the past four years, huge efforts have been made to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, but too little attention has been paid to threats from cyberspace-based weapons of "mass disruption" capable of crippling the United States' communications, energy and transportation infrastructures.

Imagine an enemy able to knock out the power in some sizable chunk of the country by means of fast-spreading viruses inserted into our computer systems. Or think of an adversary who can gain remote access to and then crash highly automated controls that run many sensitive operations, from hydroelectric dams to gas and oil pipelines and robotic chemical plants.

This concern is not just theoretical. There have been real instances of these types of attack already.

For example, information systems of a major hydroelectric dam in this country were briefly intruded upon. In Australia, a disgruntled man gained access to a wastewater treatment plant's automated control system and caused it to release large amounts of untreated sewage.

In a case that I investigated personally some years ago, a skillful hacker gained administrator-level control of a Department of Energy nuclear research facility's information systems and could have done enormous damage. Happy enough with his exploit of gaining access, the hacker left without doing much harm.

We got lucky at that nuclear research facility. But the point is that all sorts of cyber attacks are possible -- and they're coming.

Those of us who are watching see the signs in the continuing and intensive mapping of such targets by covert operatives.

Department of Defense systems have come under sustained cyber attacks, too. An early series of such intrusions, back-hacked by us as far as a computer server in Moscow, came to be known as "Moonlight Maze."

More recently, similar probing by hackers who seem to be Chinese is bedeviling us in a cyber campaign known as "Titan Rain."

Both Moonlight Maze and Titan Rain remain classified matters. Moonlight Maze, sometimes called "M2," began in the late 1990s, when we first detected a series of systematic intrusions into Pentagon systems.

The amazing part of it is that the intruders retained an ability to keep coming back into our systems, even while we were actively trying to block them. Often, there was a cyber thrust-and-parry going on in real time, as our cyber warriors tried both to block and to back-hack them, with varying degrees of success.

Like Neo vs. Agent Smith in "The Matrix," but without all the special effects, M2 offered an example of the kind of fighting in the virtual domain that cyber-punk pioneer William Gibson envisioned over 20 years ago in his classic "Neuromancer."

Where M2 appeared to have a Russian connection, Titan Rain -- which is going on right now -- seems linked to China, home to some of the world's most skillful hackers. They have been mounting cyber attacks on critical Taiwanese information infrastructures for years, as well as on economic targets such as the stock exchange in Taipei.

Like M2, Titan Rain also features deep intrusions into our sensitive military and scientific systems, mapping our information architectures and apparently accessing information about weapons and other systems.

Even in the absence of a serious cyber-terror campaign orchestrated by a specific group, the claims paid by insurers for cyber disruptions each year already exceed $40 billion. Since insurers paid about the same amount in insured losses resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it can be said that cyber attacks cost us, financially -- but not in loss of life -- the equivalent of a Sept. 11 every year.

Of course, these damages pale next to the dire consequences of a terror network coming into possession of a nuclear warhead. But it is highly unlikely that this will happen, because the nuclear weapons development process is extremely costly and complicated, and the alternate path, purchasing such devices, is fraught with potentially fatal security risks for the terrorists.

A capacity for cyber terror, on the other hand, is easily within reach for al Qaeda, other terror networks and rogue nations. Even individuals can play important roles as combatants in the virtual realm, since the world of computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses is truly one of remote, push-button warfare. All who have the requisite knowledge can soon be "clicking for their cause."

Many already possess this know-how, and the number of cyber warriors worldwide is growing swiftly. As to al Qaeda, it is thought to have sent at least one operative to the United States to learn computer science, although many more of the terror network's budding alpha geeks were given instruction elsewhere before Sept. 11.

Despite knowing of al Qaeda's long-standing interest in cyber terror, we have been a bit dismissive of this burgeoning threat. In part, that's because we doubt terrorists will focus on using computers to attack computer systems, believing instead that "real terrorists" want to kill people and blow things up far more than they want to cause data crashes.

From a purely psychological point of view, this idea makes sense, as traditional terrorists have been leg-breakers, for the most part. But over the past four years, we have made it very hard for al Qaeda to mount new attacks within the United States.

So, if Osama bin Laden wants to pursue his goal of attacking our economy, disruptive cyber-terror strikes via the Internet are likely to be an increasingly important element in his offensive.

The other reason for our being somewhat complacent about cyber terror derives from overconfidence in our defensive capabilities.

We believe that firewalls and other security tools really can protect us. There is a whole computer security industry out there, working hard every day to convince us that the virtual world can be made a safe place to do business. American companies and consumers do spend quite lavishly on this kind of security, and the Pentagon's expenditures on cyber defenses dwarf the private sector's.

Yet a goodly portion of what is paid out for cyber security is wasted. The big problem is that firewalls are generally effective only at thwarting attacks that employ already known tools and methods. Something entirely new, or a rejiggering of an older strain of a computer virus, will sail right past most firewalls, causing huge damage.

It's a situation like that caused by European explorers beginning in the 16th century. They traveled the world and brought their germs, against which the vast majority of indigenous peoples had no immunity. The result was a kind of running biological Holocaust.

If we remain firewall-dependent, sooner or later we'll find ourselves in the same situation, struck by a series of computer viruses and worms that move right through the permeable membranes of our security systems.

But there are some things we can do before al Qaeda tries to conquer us via cyberspace. The most important defensive measure we can take is to use strong encryption.

With little cost or loss of time or convenience, we could make it impossible for cyber terrorists to gain access to our systems, or to exploit them if they did gain entry. They simply wouldn't know what they were looking at, or how to find their way around a system they had hacked into.

Sadly, the U.S. government -- during both Democratic and Republican administrations -- spent many years fighting to keep strong encryption out of the hands of the American people.

That was most probably done so that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies could retain the ability to engage in cyber snooping. But all it really did was create a situation in which criminals and terrorists now have good encryption while most of us still do not.

Today, it is legal for individuals to employ codes with unbreakably long lengths, but few people use them. Less than 10 percent of Internet traffic is encrypted at all. This is true of the military as well, where strong encryption is still seen as too much of an inconvenience.

Even if we never get our cyber defensive act together, there is something we can do offensively: detect and hack into the terrorists' own systems. Some of this goes on now, but far more must be done. Of the roughly $40 billion spent each year on intelligence, only a relative thimbleful goes to Web- and Net-based activities. This needs to change.

Given that the terrorists are doing a lot to secure their own systems, we should recruit more of the world's master hackers to our cause. They'll give us our best chance of cracking even strongly encrypted terrorist communications.

The best part of making this move is that we'll learn far more about the terrorists than we have ever known before. This will give us a real chance of winning the war on terror, while at the same time reducing the intrusions on Americans' privacy.

In the meantime, get ready. The terrorists are preparing to mount cyberspace-based attacks, and we are ill prepared to deal with them.

We know from the capture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed early on in the war on terror and the more recent capture of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's laptop (but not of the man himself) that al Qaeda is a sophisticated user of advanced information technology. From other sources we have learned of the terror network's intent to launch a cyber-terror campaign. So, the clock is ticking toward a showdown with these weapons of mass disruption.

Let's hope our leaders have the wit and grit to secure our information systems, and to realize that, although our enemies may dwell in caves, they do much of their work in cyberspace. This, if we're smart about it, will turn out to be a fatal weakness of theirs -- one just begging to be exploited.

John Arquilla is professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. His views do not represent official Defense Department policy. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/15/ING2AGLP021.DTL

[Casey]

February 10, 2006 08:37 PM ET
U.S. Concludes 'Cyber Storm' Mock Attacks

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