Appeared in Network News © VNU Business Publications 1999

Companies told to prepare for attack by Serbian hackers

April 21 1999 - Corporate network professionals are being warned that they could soon face a co-ordinated computer assault by Serbian hackers retaliating against Nato attacks.

The US Defense Department and Nato's European Command have both already confirmed that hackers have attacked their computer networks. This was achieved by flooding the network with empty ping packets thereby causing a denial of service attack.

Diwakar Matai, e-commerce software consultancy mi2g's managing director, claimed Serbian and sympathetic Russian hackers were preparing a sustained assault and companies should step up security.

"We have noticed a huge upsurge in the number of people seeking information that would allow them to hack into computer networks of British and American companies,"said Matai, who believes the increased activity can be traced to Yugoslavia and Russia.