How (and why) they call this incident "cyberterrorism" is beyond me. But then again, the whole concept of "cyberterrorism" is IMO sensational tripe only used by people, organizations, and companies of ill repute in the IT security world anyway....nearly everyone who uses the term is lacking a clue about technology and IT security.
My read is that this is the government attempting to characterize something as "terrorism" simply to garner (read: coax, cajole, or mislead) folks in Washington and the general population that the USA PATRIOT Act is indeed a "good thing" for America during this election year. One wonders how low public support for the PATRIOT Act will be before the government suddenly announces that it holds the cure for cancer, unemployment, public ignorance, or any other social ill in the country. :( We'll have to wait and see - but November isn't that far off... -rick Infowarrior.org At Work: The Patriot Act http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5439022/site/newsweek July 14 - Attempting to highlight uses of the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department has disclosed new details about a bizarre �cyberattack� on the U.S. government�s South Pole research station. Officials say that Eastern European hackers penetrated the station�s computer system and threatened to sell research data to a foreign government. The South Pole cyberattack, which has gotten little public attention, has been previously cited by the FBI as a prime example of the growing problem of computer crime, as well as the bureau�s aggressive efforts to combat it. But in a new report released this week by Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Justice Department for the first time described the South Pole attack as a �cyberterrorist� threat. The 29-page report also linked the cracking of the case, as well as many other mostly unheralded prosecutions, to the new powers provided by the Patriot Act�part of a broader push by the Bush White House to build support for renewal of the controversial counterterrorism law in the face of continued criticism from civil-liberties groups and others. The case first arose in May 2003 when the National Science Foundation�s U.S. Antarctic Program received an e-mail that stated, �I�ve hacked into the server of your South Pole Research Station. Pay me off, or I will sell the station�s data to another country and tell the world how vulnerable you are.� The e-mail contained data found only on South Pole station's computers, prompting scientists to conclude the hacker had indeed penetrated the station�s computers and that the threat was real. It also spurred brief concern that the 50 scientists then at the station might be endangered since the hacked computer controlled the life-support system for the entire South Pole facility, according to the Justice report. The computer attack took place at the onset of the Antarctic winter in which temperatures drop to 70 degrees below zero. No aircraft would have been able to land at the South Pole for another six months and the scientists could theoretically been stranded, according to the Justice report. < snip > But others familiar with the South Pole case say it is unlikely that the Patriot Act would have made that much difference; bureau agents, they say, would have had no trouble getting the Internet service provider records with a normal subpoena and the National Science Foundation, as a federally funded entity, would have had no reason not to voluntarily cooperate with the FBI by turning over records. �I don�t know how the Patriot Act came up in this,� says Peter West, a spokesman for the NSF. In addition, the portrayal of the South Pole case as cyberterrorism met with some skepticism from scientists. The actual data from the South Pole station that could have been downloaded by the cyberattackers was almost entirely highly technical astrophysics research�mostly about cosmic radiation. �Its value on the open market is negligible,� West said. But Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the Internet-service provision of the Patriot Act was still crucial in this and many other cases being prosecuted by Justice. �In terrorism cases, it�s about speed. In a lot of these cases, you�re talking about life and death. This is about saving lives.� -- You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
