Electronic warfare is being waged alongside the violence between
Israel and the Palestinians, as the battling factions stage e-mail
attacks on each other's Internet service providers
Eric DoyleElectronic warfare is being waged alongside the violence between
Israel and the Palestinians, as the battling factions stage e-mail
attacks on each other's Internet service providers (ISPs).
Each attack is preceded by call-to-action chain letters giving
details of what to target and when. At the appointed hour, sites
are bombarded with e-mails in a concerted attempt to bring down the
servers.
"What we are seeing is a variation on the denial of service
attack," said Ovum senior analyst Graham Titterington. "The aim is
to overburden the server, but on its way across the network, the
e-mails can also cause problems in the firewall and network
switches."
The first attack brought down the Palestinian Hizballah site
just before Yom Kippur. The response came against the Israeli
government and the Israel Defence Force Web sites, both hosted by
ISP NetVision. The company claims there was no break in service but
many users said they could not go online that night.
Titterington said, "Preventing the attacks may require new
products to be developed. These may be the first such attacks but
they will not be the last."
Political e-mail action was also seen last week when Amnesty
International switched its letter-writing campaigns to e-mail. The
subject was Kurdish activist Sehmuz Temel, who was freed within two
days after 2,200 e-mails were sent.