Last night Hosting Matters (and their related resellers) was taken down by a DoS attack attributed to Al-Qaeda. This attack not only disabled the intended target but took down some 3000 sites for a significant period of time. Is this an example of cyber-terrorism or some kid with a script?
posted by cedar on Oct 17, 2003 - 48 comments

E-terrorism over-rated. Journalist Brian McWilliams exposes the media whoring of fellow "reporter" Dan Verton and "security intelligence" company mi2g. He shows just how easy it is to fake a "terrorist" organization online and finally gives some exposure to the amount of FUD that gets spread around by some reporters and a lot of comp. sec companies simply to make money. Though I don't think Verton gets it:

"Although the hoax this week taught me a valuable lesson about the nature of information on the Internet, it's less clear that McWilliams' scheme has done anything to advance the understanding of cyberterrorism."

Um...yeah Dan. He showed just how half-assed a job some people do in actually verifying sources and Internet-based information. Kudos to your anti-FUD efforts, Brian.
posted by bkdelong on Feb 6, 2003 - 8 comments