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03:32
rabiul islam
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.
00:03
rabiul islam
At least 34 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar late Saturday, the latest attack since Osama bin Laden's killing last month.
The bombing took place near a building that houses several newspaper offices as well as apartments. The attack occurred when a large number of people were dining in the nearby restaurants.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Taliban militants have vowed to avenge the killing of al Qaeda chief bin Laden by US SEALS in a secret raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on May 2.
A small blast preceded a big one, which senior police official Banaras Khan said police suspected was carried out by a suicide bomber.
"After the second blast, a fire broke out. Several charred bodies were lying on the ground while some wounded people were crawling away from the site," witness Naeem Ahmed told.
Television footage showed twisted window frames, shards of broken glasses and fallen electricity cables strewn on roads as rescue workers were loading wounded men on stretchers into ambulances.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the northwestern Khyber Pukhtunkhuwa (KP) province, told reporters that doctors had said the death toll was 34, "but it may rise as many wounded people are in critical condition."
Peshawar is the capital of KP, which borders Afghanistan.
Hospital officials said 100 people were wounded, 21 of them seriously. .
one of the wounded man cried 'please take me to hospital, I am alive.
Since bin Laden was killed, militants have attacked a heavily guarded naval base in Karachi; killed nearly 100 people in twin suicide bombings at the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the northwest; attacked US consulate convoy in Peshawar and killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi.
