Re: [funsec] Internet attacks against Georgian web sites

[William McAfee <sec-community () thegoodhacker com>]

I would like to point out one of the websites where the Russian side of
things appears to be collaborating.  I have no reason to believe the
Russian government is actively performing visible consequence attacks on
Georgia.  If the Russian government actually is performing attacks, it
is most likely SIGINT work, backend communications disruption, etc. 

On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 16:20 -0400, Static Rez wrote:
> The only cyber wars going on in government are probably done
> discreetly without any side even knowing it's occuring. it's called
> SPYING. But i do not, personally, have any proof of this.
>
> sr.
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Radoslav Dejanović
> <radoslav.dejanovic () opsus hr> wrote:
>         Paul Ferguson wrote:
>         
>         > Also, I wish to say:
>         >
>         > "It is clear that there are anti-Georgian forces at work on
>         the
>         > Internet."
>         >
>         > "Who they are, and what their motivations are 9at this
>         point),
>         > remains to be seen."
>         
>         
>         Just for the record...
>         
>         There were in the past several such "cyber wars" between
>         Croatia and
>         Serbia, with the scenario not quite unlike this one. The
>         scenario is as
>         follows:
>         
>         1. there's some political tension between countries;
>         
>         2. someone on one side decides that it would be highly
>         patriotic to
>         attack servers on the other side;
>         
>         3. someone on the other side retaliates by attacking other
>         country's
>         servers;
>         
>         4. more individuals join in, adding to the magnitude of the
>         event;
>         clueless media joins in with headlines like "brave local
>         patriots are
>         hacking the (evil) other side into oblivion; we have won the
>         real war,
>         we're going to win this one too";
>         
>         5. governments do not quite understand what is going on, but
>         they do not
>         intervene because they can get some political points out of
>         that mess
>         (cracked government web pages are collateral damage and in
>         fact good for
>         propaganda);
>         
>         6. after some time, the "cyberwar" ceases.
>         
>         
>         IMHO, what is going on in Georgia is a scenario like the one
>         above. I
>         don't think there's any real cyberwar between governments
>         going on, but
>         in fact local groups of people who believe that they're
>         showing their
>         patriotism. Therefore:
>         
>         - who they are: groups of individuals, not a state operated
>         force
>         
>         - what are their motivations: showing patriotism and having a
>         "legitimate" target to practice "cyberwar", as nobody is going
>         to
>         prosecute a patriotic attack on enemy country's
>         infrastructure.
>         
>         - how to end it: it will end by itself.
>         
>         
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