WTO Web site was target of assault from hackers

[kerymurakami@seattle-pi.com]

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Wednesday, January 19, 2000

By KERY MURAKAMI 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER 

The World Trade Organization not only faced attacks on the streets, but
also from hackers over the Internet.

An internal report prepared for the Seattle Host Organization that
sponsored the WTO meeting said its Web site "was the target of hundreds of
illegal attempts particularly during November, 1999, to knock us off the
Internet."

During the week the WTO was in town, hackers probed the Seattle Host
Organization's Web site nearly 700 times looking for weaknesses and tried
to hack into the Web site 54 times "in a continuing attempt to bring down
the site."

On Dec. 3, the last day of the conference, protections built into the
computer system repelled an e-mail assault that was designed "to flood the
site provider and disable it," the report said.

A spokeswoman for the Washington Council on International Trade was
careful not to blame the computer assaults on WTO opponents who disrupted
the conference with street protests.

The host organization does not know if the hackers were politically
motivated or just out to cause trouble, said Terry Laggner-Brown, the
council's spokeswoman.

The Washington Council on International Trade was one of the groups that
brought the WTO to Seattle.

"Whatever individuals were involved did not respect freedom of speech,"
she said.

FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said hackers apparently got into the
WTO's Web site in Geneva, Switzerland, as well, but caused no problems.
She was unaware of the SHO's problems, and would not speculate on whether
there would be an investigation.

Laggner-Brown said the host organization's Web site carried information
for visitors, such as local tourist attractions and ways to get around the
region. The Web site also carried information about events organized by
protest groups. She said the hackers were apparently unable to disrupt the
system.



P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at
206-448-8029 or kerymurakami@seattle-pi.com
                                           


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