[no subject]

["Grugnog" <grugnog@tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]

To news items. One on N30 'Riots & Online Disruption' and the other on London
'City firms facing hacking threat'. Both are very crap, so perhaps we should
set up some kind of 'why activists organise openly on the net' site so people
can see the other side.
- Grug

--1--

Riots & Online Disruption
By Sylvia Dennis, Newsbytes.
October 11, 1999


Global riots on November 30, organized on the Internet, have been scheduled to
coincide with a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle on that day,
the TC Group says.

According to The Complete (TC) Solutions Group, the riot is being planned by
unknown people on the Internet and as many as 30,000 protesters are expected to
converge on Seattle, with direct action planned for many financial capitals
around the world.

Nicola Smith, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that the news of
planned riots, which look likely to have an impact on financial services, both
offline and online, first broke in the UK press last weekend.

"It's been widely reported and substantiated online," she said, adding that the
entire story was far from a rumor.

Dan Morgan, TC's technology business divisional manager, meanwhile, said that
he believes the financial services industry is unaware of the impact that the
November 30 incident can have. They are, he said, not prepared for such a
catastrophe.

Morgan said that businesses need to be aware of all risks, whether internal or
external, and give them as much attention as everyone has been giving the Y2K
issue.

"They need to assess the various risks which threaten their companies on a
day-to-day basis or in the long term, whether these are rioting anarchists,
undetected computer viruses, joy-riding hackers, fire, flood, or tempest," he
said.

TV Group says it has teamed up with Strategy Planning Associates (SPA) to
develop a range of risk assessment and impact analysis tools to help companies
plan for different scenarios and rank them according to their severity.

Using SPA's software, TC Group says its consultants can then provide an
organization with a risk and impact plan that details how to survive different
crisis situations and keep the core business operational.

Geoff Bryant, SPA's managing director, said that businesses must realize the
vast number of different risks they face and tackle the scenarios before they
occur.

Stories such as the global riot crisis are unexpected until they hit the news
and this is a perfect example of how external audiences can have a massive
impact on businesses, he said.

Bryant added that the Web is a particular area of threat, since it allows
relatively anonymous groups to organize their activities in a major way.

Other abuses of the Web, he said, include cyber-espionage and "denial of
service" attacks. Because of this, he said, businesses need to plan more
meticulously to stay ahead of the threats and address all issues associated
with open access to the Internet.

TC Group's Web site is at http://www.tcsg.co.uk .


--2--

http://www.computerweekly.com/pagelink.asp?page=article&link=%2Fcwarchive%2Fnew
s%2F19991007%2Fcwcontainer%2Easp%3Fname%3DB1%2Ehtml

City firms facing hacking threat
Karl Schneider
Firms in the City of London face a potentially damaging attempt by hackers to
disrupt their IT systems on 4 January 2000.

Speaking at the IT Directors Forum this week, IT security expert Dr Neil
Barrett said two or three groups of UK hackers have been commissioned to attack
the systems of top city firms, as part of a demonstration against City "greed".

He claimed the organisers of the 4 January attack were among those involved in
the anti-City demonstration on 18 June this year, which resulted in pitched
battles between demonstrators and police in the Square Mile.

Barrett, who is on the Confederation of British Industry's Information Security
Panel, described those planning the 4 January assault as "motivated amateurs"
rather than professional hackers.

He said the raid would most likely take the form of "denial of service" attacks
against city firms' NT-based systems, aiming to block the use of systems by
legitimate users.

"A really successful intrusion into a bank's systems takes two or three days to
put together," he explained. "This is just a one-day exercise, so they won't be
manipulating systems".

Barrett said there was a smaller-scale attack by just one group of hackers
during the 18 June demonstration, but on that occasion the attempts got no
further than "door-rattling". The attack on 4 January posed a greater threat,
he said, "the City of London Police are taking this seriously".

"A lot of the companies targeted are now forewarned," he added. "But some of
them felt that the attempt on 18 June was pretty ineffective. The danger is
they could be too complacent".


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