[tt] BBC: Hackers warn high street chains

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Hackers warn high street chains
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/technology/7366995.stm
13:48 GMT, Friday, 25 April 2008 14:48 UK
[Thanks to Sarah for this.]

X-ray of hands on keyboard

High street chains will be the next victims of cyber terrorism, some
of the world's elite hackers have warned.

They claim it is only a "matter of time" before the likes of Tesco
and Marks & Spencer are targeted.

Criminals could use the kind of tactics which crippled Estonia's
government and some firms last year, they warned.

The experts were members of the infamous "Hackers Panel" which
convened in London this week at the InfoSecurity Europe conference.

The panel includes penetration testers and so-called "white hat"
hackers, who help companies tighten up their digital security by
searching for flaws in their defences.

Previous panellists include Gary McKinnon, known as Solo, alleged by
the US government to have hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air
Force, and Department of Defense computers.

The "hackers" usually remain anonymous, "for security reasons", but
this year's panellists agreed to break cover.

Common cause

First up was Roberto Preatoni, the founder of the cyber crime
monitoring site, Zone-H, and WabSabiLabi, a trading site for
security researchers.

His appearance came just a few months after he was arrested by
Italian authorities on charges of hacking and wiretapping, as part
of the ongoing investigation into the Telecom Italia scandal.

Mr Preatoni told the audience that the attacks in Estonia were a
harbinger for a new era of cyber warfare.

Gary McKinnon

"I'm afraid we will have to get used to this," said Mr Preatoni,
also known as SyS64738. "We had all been waiting for this kind of
attack to happen.

"Estonia was just unfortunate to be the first country to experience
it. But very soon, our own [western] companies and countries will be
getting attacked for political and religious reasons.

"This kind of attack can happen at any time. And it will happen."

During the two week "cyber war" against Estonia, hackers shut down
the websites of banks, governments and political parties using
"denial-of-service" (DoS) attacks, which knock websites offline by
swamping servers with page requests.

As many of the attacks originated from Russia, the Estonian
government pointed the finger at the Kremlin. But Mr Preatoni said
that, having spoken to contacts in the hacking community, he was
clear that "Putin was not involved".

"In my opinion, this was a collection of private individuals who
spontaneously gathered under the same flag.

"Even though Estonia is one of the world's most advanced countries
in IT technology, the whole economy was brought to its knees.

"That's the beauty of asymmetric warfare. You don't need a lot of
money, or an army of people. You can do it from the comfort of your
living room, with a beer in your hand.

Gate control

His warning was echoed by Steve Armstrong, who teaches seminars in
hacking techniques, at the SANS Institute for information security
training.

"If someone wants to have a pop at the UK, they are unlikely to go
for the government web servers. They will go for the lower hanging
fruit - companies which are seen as good representatives of the
country.

Hi-tech crime: A glossary
Cracking hi-tech crime
Computer

"The likes of Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q can be seen as
legitimate targets.

"We have to get the message across to companies [to invest in
information security].

"At the moment Chief Executives are only interested in the bottom
line. But remember - if tesco.com goes down, that's a lot of
shopping."

Mr Preatoni said that the Estonian government's repeated failure to
thwart the attacks was proof that we still have "no good solutions"
for denial of service attacks.

The panellists then argued over whether Internet Service Providers
should do more to tighten security, by helping customers' protect
their computers from being "zombified" by hackers for use in
distributed DoS attacks.

"Actually, I don't think the ISPs should have any role in security,"
said Preatoni.

"In my opinion, that's like asking the Royal Mail to be responsible
for the quality of your post."

But his view was immediately challenged by the third panellist,
Jason Creasey, head of research at the independent Information
Security Forum.

"I believe ISPs can play a phenomenal role in security, with a
little bit of legal pressure," he claimed.

Net weakness

He was backed by an audience member, Angus Pinkerton, of Lynks
Security Consulting. "The only way to defend against a distributed
attack is with a distributed defence," he argued.

"I think it's unacceptable that ISPs are content to let their
customers be part of bot-nets."

He challenged Steve Armstrong's view that asking ISPs to perform
security duties was "fundamentally, censorship."

"This is not about free speech," said Mr Pinkerton. "Free speech
does not entitle you to shout fire in a crowded theatre."

In the meantime, Mr Preatoni warned the audience it is "only going
to get easier" to carry out a DoS attack, because he claimed the
latest net address system, known as Internet Protocol Version 6
(IPv6), is actually more amenable to DoS.

Later, he told the BBC that the rise in cyber attacks originating in
China was a convenient cloak for western countries to disguise their
own cyber espionage activities.

"It's too easy to blame China," he said. "In fact, legitimate
countries are bouncing their attacks through China. It's very easy
to do, so why not?

"My evil opinion is that some western governments are already doing
this."