DATE=2/10/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=COORDINATED INTERNET ATTACK
NUMBER=6-11676
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: Editorial pages across the country are
reacting angrily to a series of computerized attacks
this week on various internet companies that do
business on the World Wide Web. The web is the
interactive part of the internet that includes
thousands of places where companies offer a growing
number of goods and services to people contacting them
via computer.
Several of these so-called "e"-businesses have been
temporarily put out of operation by computer vandals,
called "hackers," who flood the computers and systems
of the businesses with extraneous messages,
overloading them and closing them down.
We get a sampling now from ___________ in today's
Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: Within the past few days, at least seven of the
nation's largest internet businesses, called "e"-
businesses, have been shut down by so-called hacker
attacks (EDS: deliberate interference by computer
experts). One of the best known of these businesses
was Yahoo!, which was hit Monday afternoon. On
Tuesday, Amazon-dot-com, which sells books, audio
tapes, and other entertainment items, was hit.
Wednesday, the computer vandals went after two of the
largest stock trading companies, Z-D-Net-dot-com and
E-TRADE-dot-com.
U-S Attorney General Janet Reno says the Federal
Bureau of Investigation is trying to identify the
culprits, who will be prosecuted to the fullest.
Meanwhile, the nation's press, which also has become
involved in the internet by posting electronic
versions of the daily newspapers, has plenty to say.
We begin with the national daily, U-S-A Today,
published in the Washington D-C suburbs, which calls
what happened "Cyber-vandalism:"
VOICE: this week's wave of assaults against top
Internet Web sites points up an ugly fact: In the
cyberworld as in the physical one, a few crooks can
spoil things for everyone else. ... Attorney General
Janet Reno promised that federal agencies would do all
they could to catch and prosecute those involved. It
won't be easy. Any geek (computer expert) with a
computer and a modem can access the internet and
spread misery from anywhere around the world. ...
Surveys ... have found that most online companies lack
clear security policies and don't worry about the
safety of the sites they link up with. The price of
increased vigilance will mean billions of dollars
diverted to security instead of development. But in a
domain as public as the Internet, where a handful of
spoilers seek to exploit the weakest links, everyone
needs to keep their guard up, or everyone will lose
out.
TEXT: The Philadelphia Inquirer is equally upset, as
it notes:
VOICE: In one of the most vicious and pointless gang-
ups in hacker (computer user) history, cyber-vandals
figured out a way to paralyze these much-frequented
sites. Their success helped propel the Dow [Jones
stock average] into a 250-plus point free-fall
yesterday [2/09]. This e-prank was pretty easy to do.
And there may be no defense. It was just another
reminder that security and reliability remain serious
issues on the ol' (old) Info Highway.
TEXT: Striking a similar theme, the Honolulu Star
Bulletin of Hawaii says "stronger security measures
are needed to stabilize Internet sites."
VOICE: A computer data assault immobilized Yahoo!,
the internet's most popular search engine and
information portal, for nearly three hours on Monday.
The next day, hackers attacked e-Bay, Amazon-dot-com,
Buy-dot-com, and CNN-dot-com, raising questions about
the security of other sites on the World Wide Web.
The attacks caused much inconvenience for internet
users. While the financial effects were negligible,
it showed the potential for significant damage on the
new e-commerce battlefield. ... The hackers were
believed to include a group in Portugal and a teenager
in Virginia.
TEXT: The San Francisco Chronicle is not amused
either:
VOICE: The charmingly precocious renegade image that
many people have of computer vandals has got to go.
... These cyber-thugs can invade private sites and
cause the loss of millions of dollars to businesses
and individuals. Yet they enjoy a certain stature
among others of their techno-ilk ...
TEXT: In Southern California, The Los Angeles Times
is distressed, but also frustrated that so many
internet web companies ignored earlier warnings of
just such an eventuality.
VOICE: The F-B-I's National Infrastructure Protection
Center warned last December that programs capable of
disrupting large web sites were readily available and
said it had developed software to identify and block
them. ... companies will certainly listen more
closely now.
TEXT: New England's premier daily, The Boston Globe,
is distressed at just how weak the system appears in
light of these latest attacks.
VOICE: The internet is an extraordinary tool for
knowledge and commerce, but its reliability is open to
question after the hacking attacks this week. Yahoo!
And the other companies have been put on notice that
they must protect their sites better against the
hackers' electronic barrage if the Internet is to
become a rock-solid communications medium like the
telephone network. Attorney General ... Reno was
right to give this crime top priority. Finding the
hackers will be difficult, however, since they use
relay computers to bombard the sites with thousands of
messages, thus effectively shutting them down. ...The
internet is decentralized enough so that other sites
were available to offer similar services when yahoo!
And the others were down. ... But the major web sites
are now on notice that they must be adequately
protected if e-commerce is to reach its full
potential.
NEB/ANG/JP
10-Feb-2000 17:26 PM EDT (10-Feb-2000 2226 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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