Information Warfare

The interesting report in ZDnet about the cyber war around Kosovo is unique in describing the process. According to the report hacker groups on each side share information in order to make attacks more efficient. Some collect vulnerable web sites, while others use automatic defacement tools to attack.

On the positive side, the report states that at the time of writing, there is a ceasefire and parties are negotiating. Is there room for cyber peace along side cyber war?

Update (Jan 13^th 2009) - Ynet, an Israeli paper, reports that many of the sites defaced where actually DNS hijacked following a break-in to the servers of DomainTheNet, an Israeli registrar. And just like other recent DNS hijacking incidents, the fault was lack of sufficient authentications and the hackers got hold of passwords to the administration system.

An attack on New Zealand government web sites required New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark to comment and ensure the public that no confidential information was stolen. However official sources in New Zealand confirm attacks were carried out by unnamed, but known, foreign governments on New Zealand government web site that resulted in stealing of information.

Additional information:

• No classified data lost in cyber attacks - Clark [The New Zealand Herald, Sep 11 2007]