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No arrests yet in hack attack
reports launched in early February against prominent Web sites including Yahoo, eBay and Buy.com. Denial-of-service attacks disable a site by bombarding it with a high volume of information requests in a short period of time, which cause the site to crash. RealNames is an online service that helps mostly business customers drive traffic to their Web sites. RealNames’ system swaps simple keywords for complicated Web addresses, making navigation easier for end users. Users can type the keywords straight into a URL field and be taken directly to the site. Customers pay an annual fee for
each keyword they register with RealNames. Teare was optimistic that the attack against his company, along with the rise in denial-of-service attacks reported,
“credit-card companies have been notified of the security breach and, so far, noone has reported any fraud associated with the RealNames break-in”
No arrests yet in hack attack John Sterlicchi Nearly a month after hackers shut down some of the most popular Internet sites in the US there has still been no arrests. “The challenges to apprehending the suspects are substantial. Despite these challenges, I am optimistic that the hard work of our agents, analysts and computer scientists...will in the end prove successful”, Michael Vatis, the FBI’s director of National Infrastructure Protection Center, told a joint hearing of US Congress crime subcommittees in late February. Unconfirmed reports had the FBI closing in on a couple of suspects codenamed ‘mafiaboy’ and ‘coolio’. The FBI received help from authorities in Canada in its bid to track down mafiaboy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police in February questioned executives at Montreal-based service provider Internet Direct about a former subscriber, who used that name. However, Stanford University systemsoftware developer David Brumley, who is assisting in the investigation, said that mafiaboy is a false lead. He said that the culprit was based in the US and an arrest was imminent. Several days after he made that statement there was still no announcement
from the FBI, which reportedly has agents from 17 offices working on the case.
“President Clinton wanted to ensure that the private sector was doing all it could to protect itself against attacks” It was Monday, 7th February that several of country’s largest Internet sites, including Yahoo, Amazon.com, CNN.com, eBay.com, Buy.com, ETrade Group, Excite.com and ZDNet received massive amounts of data requests that overloaded their systems and shut them down for several hours. Last week high-tech executives travelled to Washington to meet with President Clinton, who had organized a summit to discuss Internet security. More than 25 security experts from companies including AT&T, Cisco, MCI Worldcom, Intel and Microsoft attended
would not undermine the public’s confidence in the Internet. “ While it will have the effect of undermining the confidence of a small number of inexperienced users, in the long term I don’t think it will have a great deal of impact for most people”, Teare said. RealNames has formed partnerships with search engines AltaVista and LookSmart and is incorporated into Internet Explorer. Its customers include Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Federal Express and Visa among its 25 000 customers.
the meeting Tuesday. President Clinton said, “I think it was an alarm. I don’t think it was Pearl Harbor.” He was referring to the Japanese attack on 7th December 1941, which killed nearly 2300 Americans. President Clinton wanted to ensure that the private sector was doing all it could to protect itself against attacks and he wanted support for the $2 billion he has in his budget this year to protect the government’s computer infrastructure. High-tech officials are against new laws regulating the Internet. “At this time, we do not ask Congress for new laws in the area of Internet security”, Charles Giancarlo, a senior vice president at Cisco Systems, told the crime subcommittee hearing.
“Cooperation — not regulation or legislation — will ensure that the Internet remains secure and at the same time open to the broadest possible public access” “Cooperation — not regulation or legislation — will ensure that the Internet remains secure and at the same time open to the broadest possible public access”, he told the lawmakers. 7
each keyword they register with RealNames. Teare was optimistic that the attack against his company, along with the rise in denial-of-service attacks reported,
“credit-card companies have been notified of the security breach and, so far, noone has reported any fraud associated with the RealNames break-in”
No arrests yet in hack attack John Sterlicchi Nearly a month after hackers shut down some of the most popular Internet sites in the US there has still been no arrests. “The challenges to apprehending the suspects are substantial. Despite these challenges, I am optimistic that the hard work of our agents, analysts and computer scientists...will in the end prove successful”, Michael Vatis, the FBI’s director of National Infrastructure Protection Center, told a joint hearing of US Congress crime subcommittees in late February. Unconfirmed reports had the FBI closing in on a couple of suspects codenamed ‘mafiaboy’ and ‘coolio’. The FBI received help from authorities in Canada in its bid to track down mafiaboy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police in February questioned executives at Montreal-based service provider Internet Direct about a former subscriber, who used that name. However, Stanford University systemsoftware developer David Brumley, who is assisting in the investigation, said that mafiaboy is a false lead. He said that the culprit was based in the US and an arrest was imminent. Several days after he made that statement there was still no announcement
from the FBI, which reportedly has agents from 17 offices working on the case.
“President Clinton wanted to ensure that the private sector was doing all it could to protect itself against attacks” It was Monday, 7th February that several of country’s largest Internet sites, including Yahoo, Amazon.com, CNN.com, eBay.com, Buy.com, ETrade Group, Excite.com and ZDNet received massive amounts of data requests that overloaded their systems and shut them down for several hours. Last week high-tech executives travelled to Washington to meet with President Clinton, who had organized a summit to discuss Internet security. More than 25 security experts from companies including AT&T, Cisco, MCI Worldcom, Intel and Microsoft attended
would not undermine the public’s confidence in the Internet. “ While it will have the effect of undermining the confidence of a small number of inexperienced users, in the long term I don’t think it will have a great deal of impact for most people”, Teare said. RealNames has formed partnerships with search engines AltaVista and LookSmart and is incorporated into Internet Explorer. Its customers include Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Federal Express and Visa among its 25 000 customers.
the meeting Tuesday. President Clinton said, “I think it was an alarm. I don’t think it was Pearl Harbor.” He was referring to the Japanese attack on 7th December 1941, which killed nearly 2300 Americans. President Clinton wanted to ensure that the private sector was doing all it could to protect itself against attacks and he wanted support for the $2 billion he has in his budget this year to protect the government’s computer infrastructure. High-tech officials are against new laws regulating the Internet. “At this time, we do not ask Congress for new laws in the area of Internet security”, Charles Giancarlo, a senior vice president at Cisco Systems, told the crime subcommittee hearing.
“Cooperation — not regulation or legislation — will ensure that the Internet remains secure and at the same time open to the broadest possible public access” “Cooperation — not regulation or legislation — will ensure that the Internet remains secure and at the same time open to the broadest possible public access”, he told the lawmakers. 7