|
Muslim News Server Targeted By Pro-Israeli Net Saboteurs
by Sarah Darwish
CAIRO, March 19 (IslamOnline) - In a new episode in the cyber war between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine hackers, two virus-infected messages targeted one of the most used news servers by Muslims and Arabs, the MSANEWS, a statement from the server's editors said.
In a message posted on the server, editors of MSANEWS warned against opening any ".exe" files that may be sent to the subscribers. The message said that two ".exe" files, bearing the name Yassin.exe, in the form of attachments were delivered to the MSANEWS from "suspicious sources" apparently to cripple the service in the context of a cyber war which accompanied the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli encroachment of Muslim holy sites in September.
"We do not understand what disabling MSANEWS would serve given that we feature news and analyses from all sides?" said MSANEWS in a message sent to its recipients.
The U.S. based Muslim Student Association News (MSANEWS), a service based out of Ohio State University, was started to serve the local Muslim community in 1991, but later gained popularity as it served as a forum for both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Muslim Americans use it due to its tolerance of posting all views. The popularity of the server spread to many Muslim countries and is often also used by organizations located outside the United States prompting some Internet reviews to call it "perhaps the single largest source of news coverage on the Middle East available on the internet."
"The paths of both messages lead to an Israeli Internet company called 'Internet Zahav' [Internet Gold/Dhahab al-Internet]. According to www.ripe.net [Reseaux IP Europeens], the IP number 192.114.186.20 belongs a certain 'Shlomi Zohar,' a contact person for 'Internet Zahav.'
"The second IP number which relayed the "Yassin.exe" file, 213.8.128.39, belongs to Amos Rosenboim, Arik Alster, and Nir Shamir. They are all with the inter.net.il company," said the statement.
"We think we are being targeted because [of the] Palestinian advocacy on the list and that of many of their supporters in the Arab and Islamic communities around the world [have] grown exponentially since [the] al-Aqsa Intifadah started," stated the message.
The MSNANEWS team reiterated commitment that it was "eager" to post all that was sent concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"We are swamped given that we also follow many other 'causes' and try to give space to them as well," MSNANEWS staff said, assuring that they try to be objective and provide space to various viewpoints and ideologies.
A few weeks earlier, an pro-Israeli internet surfer posted a message on MSANEWS, saying "I hope that all the arabs will die soon......when the war begins we will kill you all. that's a promise!," he said. "Inshallah."
Several similar Muslim and Arab sites have come under attack from Israeli hackers since the eruption of a Palestinian uprising in the Occupied Territories.
Israeli hackers crashed several Hezbollah-related web sites. Palestinian supporters retaliated by infiltrating Netvision, the Israeli ISP (Internet Service Provider) that hosts sites for the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset), the Foreign Ministry and defense forces.
Israeli hackers then assailed a Lebanese Internet company for what was believed to be an act of reprisal for its hosting of a Hezbollah-maintained television station, al-Manar. The hackers left a message that the portal was taken over by the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
Muslim hackers, from different Muslim countries, like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, retaliated by hacking into and taking over several important Israeli sites including Likud leader, now Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon's site.
The hackers replaced the site with pro-Islamic slogans praising the Palestinians and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah.
The informative site for the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, the main active group that carries out military operations against Israel, was also hacked recently - the same day Ariel Sharon took office as Prime Minister and as the group said it would carry out martyr operations against Israel.
Visitors, including journalists, anticipating Hamas press releases were re-directed to pornographic websites.
Hamas's website is still down, but a message on the page states that the domain name "hamas.org" is reserved and that "A web site is COMING SOON!"
|
