-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukresponse/story/0,11017,773100,00.html
UK targets at risk of cyber terror Richard Norton-Taylor Monday August 12, 2002 The Guardian Britain faces a growing threat of an electronic attack by terrorists linked to al-Qaida that could paralyse key public services, including electricity and water supplies, the government's adviser on computer security has told the Guardian. For terrorist groups like al-Qaida with limited resources, it would be "a very attractive method" of attack, that would cause "huge damage", said Stephen Cummings, director of the National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre. It is actively working with the intelligence services, including GCHQ, to gather information about the electronic capabilities of terror groups. The centre, a little-known unit based in the Home Office, was set up three years ago to alert government agencies and companies to threats to computer networks and protect what it calls Britain's critical national infrastructure, or CNI. The CNI includes those parts of the country's infrastructure "for which continuity is so important to national life that loss, significant disruption, or degradation of service would have life-threatening, serious economic, or other grave consequences for the community". It covers telecommunications, energy, finance, transport, central government, water, health services, and emergency services. Terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, are already well aware of the potentially devastating effect of electronic attacks, according to Mr Cummings. Such attacks would have the advantage for terrorists of being extremely difficult to trace. American newspapers this summer reported that signs of al-Qaida's skills in cyberspace prompted US officials to conclude that terrorists were at the threshold of using the internet as a weapon to kill - for example, by taking control of floodgates in a dam, or of electricity substations. Mr Cummings stressed that terror groups did not yet have the capability to mount such attacks. Much more likely and more common would be further attacks on individual websites using a virus or worm or through hacking. But he said that while the threat of an attack that would knock out a critical public service or power source was lower than attacks on websites, it was increasing. "Terrorists are aware of the potential," he said. "Al-Qaida would be interested in developing the capability." If it recruited someone who worked inside an organisation such as a water or power company, "it could happen tomorrow," he said. Electronic attack could sabotage the software controlling the distribution of power or the flow of water, for example. The security services got a shock this year when a group of researchers at Oulu University in Finland reported that a worldwide software network, the simple network management protocol, or SNMP as it is commonly known, was vulnerable to attack. Mr Cummings' office sent out warnings advising Whitehall departments and companies to install patches - coded electronic "sticking plaster" designed to protect systems from outside attack - or to separate SNMP traffic from the rest of their computer systems. Private security companies also say there is growing evidence of attempts at electronic terrorism. "They are trying to get in through the back doors of office networks, which are quite vulnerable," said Christophe Huygens of Belgium-based Ubizen. NISCC issued 34 serious alerts last year, compared with just seven the year before. 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