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Connect for Terrorism... |
Technology comes from the Greek word meaning “the art of useful things”. In this sense, the art of the computer should be able to foster grace, beauty and further the understanding of the meaning of life as other art forms do. However, rather than fulfilling this noble goal, technology criminals have managed to keep artistic qualities in check through hacking, virus spreading and other criminal activity. Through these Internet crimes privacy of individuals have been invaded, criminal sites remain active, private company files and government files are broken into and even reputable Islamic websites become the brunt of scandal. A world that should be full of discovery, freedom and valuable information has become a victim to the hackers and the war against them: and recently, in the war against terrorism.
Since the attacks of September 11th, governmental controls have increased, not only against the hackers themselves, but against any Muslim or Arab deemed “suspicious” on the web. The government’s "war-on-terrorism" has given birth to governmental control on all things pertaining to terrorism and more. This has increased the traffic on the Internet as users endeavor to find out what is really going on. “It’s now 'us and them’ with ‘them’ being politicians, the establishment, broadcasters and media,” said the director of BBC News, Richard Sambrook, in response to falling numbers of viewers watching the news (Lister, p.1).
On the Internet, Muslim groups like idleb.com warned other Muslim site holders to secure their domains way ahead of time last December. Their site one of many was placed on hold until the registration association decided whether they had a right to keep it or not (AbdulRahman, p.1).
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| “Who’s Behind the Keyboard” is part of recent government investigations. |
However, government investigations are not the only danger on the web. Viruses are still the most dangerous tools used by investigators and criminals alike. Just before Ramadhan, the American Muslim Council’s e-mail list of 100,000 members was infected with the "Snow White" virus. There are differences of opinion as to whether it was intentional or not but as Raymond Busch of the American Muslim Council said “We call this criminal activity.” Active since October 2000, hybrids of the virus peaked last January accounting for 20% of the complaints to the anti-virus company.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of other viruses to fill the remaining 80% of the complaint list. Sophus is another recent virus plaguing many computer systems. Sophus spreads by e-mail attachment presenting itself with various subject headings. On opening the attachment, it infects the WSOCK32-DLL file, a key component of Windows that operates whenever a computer connects to the Internet. It modifies the file and tracks e-mail addresses communicating with the infected computer. It then sends a copy of the worm to those addressed with a random file name. While operating, the worm accesses a newsgroup like alt.comp.virus to renew itself in an encrypted form trying to match a particular format (Shachtman, p.1, 2). Even with an anti-virus program in place it can continue to make random targets for years (Ng, p.1, 2).
Although private groups and companies are the most effected by viruses, government organizations are not immune. Last November, a pervasive virus was sent by the national company British Telecom (BT) from its support department. Known as Badtrans, it comes as an attachment infecting Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs. It exploits a flaw in Internet Explorer that is integrated to Outlook that was meant to let users open HTML-based e-mail messages. Homes and businesses in up to 40 countries were infected as the virus sends copies of itself and takes on unanswered e-mails. Attachments vary with suffixes like .doc, .pic and .news. It implants a hidden ‘key-logging’ program that records passwords. The sensitive information goes back to the virus writer or attacker who uses many anonymous e-mail accounts (Worley, p.1, 2).
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Viruses have no problem navigating the inner depths of your computer...
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Discovered last April, the Badtrans virus can take control of an infected file installing its own components. It copies itself to Windows directory with INETD.EXE and drops the Trojan component to Widows directory with HKK32.EXE. Due to its copying capacity, it can send and receive messages of up to several thousands within a minute causing the e-mail server to crash (F-SecureComputer p.1-3). Apparently, BT was embarrassed when an earlier version of Badtrans had been sent. They admitted to infecting the computers of its Internet customers and had ‘taken action’. However it was ultimately impossible to identify the virus-writer because their accounts are all web-based (Arthur, p.1, 2).
To assist organizations, companies and people in protecting themselves against viruses the FBI released a list of “Top Twenty Things that Make Computers Vulnerable to Hackers”. The list states that hackers rely on organizations not fixing the problems as they scan the Internet looking for vulnerable systems. The most common flaws they found were installing programs without removing unnecessary services or patching applications that they don’t use. Weak passwords was another. The System Administration, Networking and Security Institute who helped the FBI to compile the list said: “In practice, all accounts with weak passwords, default passwords, and no passwords should be removed from your system” (Tech Live, p.1). Ironically, to create this list, the FBI had to first create one of the most powerful hacking software available today.
Sources:
- AbdulRahman. “Urgent Our Islamic Site is Under Attack.” Idleb.com. 12/07/01.
- Arthur, Charles. “BT Admits Sending Internet Virus to It’s Customers.” Independent.co.uk. 11/28/01.
http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/news/
- F-Secure.com. “F-Secure Computer Virus Information Pages: BadTrans.” F-Secure.com. 01/06/02.
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/badtrans.shmtl
- Lister, David. “Time-Bomb’ of Viewers Watching the Television News.” Independent.co.uk. 12/05/01.
http://www.independent.co.uk/legal/story.jsp?story=72172
- Ng, Cary & Peter, Ferrie. “Symantec Security Response – W95.Hybris.gen.” Symantec.com. 01/06/02.
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
- Shachtman, Noah. “E-Mail Virus Slams Muslim Group.” Wired.com. 01/06/02.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/
- Tech Live Staff. “FBI Releases List of Top 20 Computer Risks.” TechTv.com. 01/06/02.
http://www.techtv.com/news/
- Worley, Becky. “’Badtrans’ Worm Continues Spread.” ABCNews.com. 01/06/02.
http://abcnews.com/printerfirendly/
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