The ISC would like to go out on a limb and predict that the Internet will not vaporize into a cloud of nothingness this Thursday, but if it does, it's been our pleasure to help stave off its inevitable annihilation this long. --

I didn't want to be the first to bring it up today, but what I _love_ about the MOSNEWS link quoting "Kaspersky" is how the "internet" network of South Korea going down last week was used as an example how the "whole" internet could be brought down. I'm sorry if SK's network went down [I don't know, didn't hear about it]. I have a problem believing it is a useful case study in the global network. Deepak Jain AiNET

So, slashdot is linking to some news sites that are reporting that Aleksandr Gostev from Kapersky Labs in Russia has predicted that a large chunk of the net will be shut down tomorrow.

I thought the ISC comment was pretty funny:

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php -- e-Jihad Begins Thursday, Internet Predicted to Melt Down by Mid-day

You should probably starting backing up that gig of gmail to local storage. According to a Russian news site, Kaspersky Labs states that terrorists will launch attacks which will paralyze the Internet this Thursday. This tragically coincides with two weeks of script kiddie attacks (which were scheduled to begin this past Sunday) aimed at disrupting the Republican national convention. In addition, many college students are back on campus this week, which provides the e-terrorists and i-subversives with a veritable candyland of insecure boxes on big pipes. Faced with this triple threat, our beloved Internet will surely fall.

The ISC would like to go out on a limb and predict that the Internet will not vaporize into a cloud of nothingness this Thursday, but if it does, it's been our pleasure to help stave off its inevitable annihilation this long. --

Andy

Should have kept reading... Reply by Handyman (97520) - "Kaspersky labs says they were misquoted. Quoting from a mail from kaspersky labs themselves (as found in a repost on the NTBugtraq mailing list): A handful of sites are stating that Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Labs, believes that tomorrow will bring a massive terrorist attack on the Internet. This is being quoted in a range of ways, ranging from factual reporting to citing the story as an example of cyber hysteria. However, Kaspersky is not predicting the end of the Internet tomorrow - or even in the near future. The story stems from brief comments made yesterday at a press conference which was dedicated to cybercrime and the problems of spam. At this press conference, Kaspersky commented that the possibility of terrorists using the Internet as a tool to attack certain countries as a reality. As an example, he cited the fact that a number of Arabic and Hebrew language websites contained an announcement of an 'electronic jihad' against Israel, to start on 26th August 2004. In an interview today, Kaspersky stressed that such information was not necessarily trustworthy. 'We don't know who is behind these statements.' He went on to clarify: 'It's not the first time the term 'electronic jihad' has been used. We've seen this before, with the focus being on sending racist emails, and defacing and hacking Israeli web sites. But it is the first time I have seen sites encouraging the use of Internet attacks against one country as a form of terrorism.' 'As we've already stated many times in the past, it would be easy enough to use a network of infected computers to launch such an attack. We saw the impact that Sasser, Mydoom and Slammer had, on the Internet, businesses and organisations. Just imagine if such an attack was directed at one country or one critical point in the infrastructure of the Internet. Computers are a tool - and just like any tool, they can be used or misused.' Kaspersky emphasised that the likelihood of a massive attack directed against Israeli institutions tomorrow is low. However, he believes that Pandora's box has now been opened. Hackers and virus writers can be motivated by a range of factors: money, curiosity, or political conviction. But whatever their motivation, the insecure nature of the Internet and weak security precautions offer a wealth of opportunities. 'Maybe it won't be tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow - but sooner or later, terrorists will be using the Internet as another weapon in their arsenal.'" -- - ODS.org Team Elvedin Trnjanin elvedin@ods.org http://www.ods.org

--On onsdag 25 augusti 2004 14.53 -0400 Andy Dills <andy@xecu.net> wrote:

So, slashdot is linking to some news sites that are reporting that Aleksandr Gostev from Kapersky Labs in Russia has predicted that a large chunk of the net will be shut down tomorrow.

FWIW, we (Nordunet/Sunet) today saw one of the larger dDoS attacks we've seen so far in our end of the net, totaling around 2MPPS toward a single host. It was coordinated, wery well-spread (came in through both transit providers at equal balance, and almost as much over the REN connection towards the rest of Europe and some spillage over private peers.) and persistent. We've had to deploy several layers of null0 routes to fight it, (our transit providers have been very helpful, btw.) but service to anything except the attacked host has not been affected much. Them tax-financed OC192's come in handy at times ;-) -- Måns Nilsson Systems Specialist +46 70 681 7204 KTHNOC MN1334-RIPE