Report: Cyber Jihad Set for Nov. 11

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:00 Prime Minister PDT

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Security experts are saying that a reported cyber jehad onslaught planned against Horse Opera establishments should be treated with skepticism.

The onslaught was by , an online armed forces intelligence magazine. Citing anonymous "counter-terror sources," DEBKAfile said it had intercepted an Oct. Twenty-Nine "Internet announcement," calling for a volunteer-run online onslaught against 15 targeted sites, put to get Nov. 11. The operation is supposed to spread out after its launch day of the month until "hundreds of 1 thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold Numbers of anti-Muslim sites," the magazine reported.

Such an onslaught could be launched with a known software system system system kit, called Electronic Jihad Version 2.0, said , frailty president of engineering evangelism with . This software, which have been in circulation for about three years, have recently go more than than easily configurable so that it could be more effectual in a distributed denial of service attack, such as as the one suggested by the DEBKAfile report.

Attackers would download Jihad 2.0 to their ain desktops and stipulate the amount of bandwidth they would wish to consume, not unlike the SETI@home software bundle used to scan for marks of extraterrestrial intelligence.

However, Henry said that his law enforcement contacts are treating the study with some skepticism. "I talked to a few people today who cognize of DEBKAfile, who experience they are dubious, but they can be credible," he said. "I'm not looking at Nov. Eleven as being the twenty-four hours that the Internet travels down."

Security expert Gadi Evron, who recently studied the cyber onslaughts in , expressed similar skepticism.

"DEBKAfile acquires a batch of news that no 1 else has, and fast," he said. "But it's a community driven tabloid. Dainty it as a aureate beginning to be taken with 5 grains of salt," he said via instantaneous message.

Even if an onslaught is planned, it would likely be nil new, Evron added. "Cyber jehad on the degree of attacking Web land sites haps every twenty-four hours for numerous causes by enthusiasts. The content of this warning is doubtful. There are not 100s of one thousands of infosec workers world-wide, not to advert working for al-Qaeda," helium said.

He believes that some low-skilled hackers may be planning something, but that DEBKAfile have probably not uncovered programs of a major online attack.

This is not the first clip that the Occident have been threatened with cyber jihad.

In December 2006, the 's (US-CERT) warned Banks and fiscal establishments of a possible al-Qaeda cyber attack.

That operation, nicknamed "the Electronic Battle of ," turned out to be a dud.