press release
Hackers & Viruses to take data hostage world wide
London, UK, 17th June 1999 - There is mounting evidence that Cyber
Warfare attacks will take place across the world by anarchists and date programmed
viruses on June 18.
The attacks on computer networks of financial institutions and multi-national
corporations are part of an international day of action against businesses,
to coincide with the G8 meeting in Cologne. Businesses head-quartered in the
following countries are likely to be the key targets - USA, UK, Germany, Canada,
Australia, France and Japan.
Corporations and financial institutions located in London, New York and Frankfurt
in particular are hereby advised to "batten
down their hatches" by scanning all incoming e-mail and checking
for intrusions continuously right through the weekend. If any machines behave
erratically, they should be disconnected from the network immediately and
checked for any tell tale signs of abnormality.
D K Matai, Managing Director of mi2g (www.mi2g.com), said today, "Break-ins
on June 18 are not just for profit or industrial espionage. The hacking and
virus attack disruptions are specifically to achieve maximum media exposure.
They are going to be carried out to deliver a message, or inflict damage for
a political cause. Since the start of 1999, mi2g has evidence to substantiate
politically motivated acts of Cyber Warfare that have occurred against over
100 businesses in the US and UK alone, mostly because of the NATO-Serbia crisis
and the China chapter."
The Security Intelligence Products and Systems (SIPS) division of
mi2g stated today that business organisations should in particular
watch out for the following problems over the coming 72 hour window:
- Holding Data Hostage to demand payment for the release of critical knowledge
- E-Mailing of virus attachments in benign looking wrappers
- Remote commands to trigger embedded viruses via open ports and holes in
firewalls
- Denial of service attacks and network vandalism
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Editor's Notes:
Please check out www.mi2g.com NEWS and SECURITY sections for
the background to Cyber Warfare and Viruses.
