-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Information Warfare Feds Attack Internet Nothing like a good hacker scare to push FBI wiretap legislation through. The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday launched an investigation into a series of hacking incidents that have temporarily shut down some of the biggest sites on the internet in the past few days. Wednesday, hackers attacked ZDnet, a technology news and information web site, and E*Trade, one of the largest online brokerages, was also severely disrupted. "There are tools out there that a 15-year old kid could use to launch these attacks. This is not something that takes a great deal of sophistication," said Ron Dick, of the FBI's national infrastructure protection centre. The FBI stressed that the attacks could not be halted by government action; there had to be self-policing. Computer users had to protect themselves from being the unwitting instrument of such attacks. Keynote Systems, a Silicon Valley company that monitors web site performance, detected the ZDnet and E*Trade attacks when the web sites were bombarded with fake messages from multiple rogue computers. These incidents followed Tuesday's attacks on Amazon.com, the leading online retailer; eBay, the online auction house; CNN, the news service; and Buy.com, another online retailer that had launched its initial public stock offering earlier in the day. On Monday, Yahoo! the biggest web site, was closed for nearly three hours by hackers. Patrick Taylor of Internet Security Systems, a computer security company, said the potential for such incidents had been highlighted in security alerts over the Millennium holiday. Rogue attack software programs were detected on computers linked to the internet. These programs, a form of software virus, were installed without the knowledge of the computer operators. The hacker, or hackers, behind the incidents appear to have been able to activate these programs to bombard the target computers, said Mr Taylor. In the Yahoo! incident about 50 computers are believed to have been involved. Mr Taylor warned the viruses were at large throughout the world. "This is not a uniquely US problem." Yahoo! said it did not expect the incident to affect its earnings. But the potential for attacks to undermine consumer and business confidence in e-commerce represented a much bigger threat said Jack Staff, chief internet economist at Zona Research, a US market research group. No data are known to have been compromised at the web sites that have come under attack, said Eugene Spafford, Professor at Perdue University and a recognised authority on computer security. But Mr Spafford said businesses should be wary of putting critical applications on the internet. "No single event can derail (the e-business) movement," said Mr Spafford. "However, this should serve as a reminder that the infrastructure on which e-business is being built is not as robust as we would like it to be." The stock market response to the hacking incidents was muted. Shares of Yahoo! were off $8 1/8, or 2 per cent, at $365. Shares of ISS, Check Point Software, Axent and other computer security companies rose on news of the hacker attacks. The Financial Times, February 10, 2000 More Innovative Ways to Print Money Another New Internet Billionaire Hack this. Scott Blum became the latest Internet billionaire yesterday -- on the very day that his web site was practically shut down by hackers. The 34-year-old founder of Buy.com, an avid surfer and mountain biker, saw his stake in the company soar to $1.56 billion on the day of its initial public offering. The Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based e-tailer, which offers 850,000 products at discount prices on the Internet, sold 14 million shares at $13 each, above the expected price range of $10-$12. The shares almost doubled to close at $25.13, up 93.27 percent. The stock offering was managed by Merrill Lynch & Co., with Bear Stearns & Co., Chase H&Q and U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. Ironically while investors were cheering Buy.com's big move, hackers attacked the site, shutting out customers for most of the afternoon. Buy.com said a deluge of false traffic blocked the site's use. "The attack didn't violate the integrity of our site, it just slowed it down," said Chief Financial Officer Scott Mitch Hill. "This is unfortunate but we had a terrific public offering." Hill said Buy.com was looking into measures to prevent such coordinated attacks. By the end of the trading day, Buy.com had a market capitalization of $3.5 billion. The e-tailer lost $146 million in 1999 on revenue of $597 million. The company plans to use the $182 million from the offering to offset its losses as it expands. After the offering, Blum retains 48.1 percent of the shares of the company. Softbank owns a 29.7 percent stake. "Buy.com has a negative gross margin, which means they lose money on each and every sale," said Francis Gaskins of Gaskins IPO Desktop (www.gaskinsco.com). "I have never seen anyone make money in the IPO aftermarket with a company that has a negative gross margin. Some analysts have hopped on this bandwagon and it makes no financial sense whatever." Blum was probed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1997 over accounting procedures at Pinnacle Micro Inc., a company he founded. He and other Pinnacle executives reached a settlement with the SEC without admitting guilt. New York Post, February 10, 2000 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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