Friday 17 June 2011

'Hacktivists' make noise on US govt websites


























A breed of cyber pranksters known as "hacktivists" appears to be on a campaign to embarrass the US government, but such types of attack are unlikely to breach the computer firewalls that protect important official secrets, independent analysts say.

A loosely organised group of hackers called Lulz Security, little known outside of cybersecurity circles, has claimed attacks against the public websites of the CIA and US Senate over the past week. Hackers mounted a second, similar assault against the Senate website on Wednesday, possibly the work of copycats.

US officials say government computer systems and websites, including those operated by the Pentagon, are subjected to thousands of attempted hackings each month but that safeguards usually keep would-be intruders away from sensitive data.

The Lulz style of attack, known as a denial of service meant to disable the target's website, is often undertaken by activists as young as teenagers and pose little danger aside from embarrassment and website clean-up costs that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's hacktivism -- activism through hacking. Campaigns of this kind have been done in the past for two reasons: outrage and self-promotion. This one is some combination of those," said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a think tank devoted to cyber issues.

"There's a lot of noise but no real downside, except that if people don't think the CIA can protect its own website, it colors their thinking about what it can do in other arenas -- maybe unfairly, but it doesn't really matter."

Denial of service attacks are the most basic form of cyber intervention, in which hackers jam a website by flooding it with traffic. The attacks often involve software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet.

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