Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network --------------------------------------------------------------------- ## author : i-contact@gifford.co.uk ## date : 27.01.99 --------------------------------------------------------------------- E - Nazis Creating Chaos on the 'Net Many institutions world-wide have been affected by a highly organised hacking spree that culminated in the attack on Connect - Ireland, one of only two top level domain guardians based in Ireland. The apparent aim of the attack was to disrupt the East Timorese Internet domain, established only twelve months ago by the East Timorese Project. The East Timor Project, an internet based information project initiated by Connect - Ireland and the 1996 Nobel Prize winners Ramos Horta and Bishop Belo, has received two international web awards. Its most note worthy achievement was to ensure that the ISO recognised East Timor's right to its own top level Internet domain (.tp). This was despite the fact that the country is currently occupied by the Indonesian military. The perpetrators of this attack have not yet been identified, but the Indonesian government is known to be extremely antagonistic towards this display of virtual sovereignty. Similar attacks have occurred over the past year but have, until now, been unable to breech the East Timor server's security. Yesterday the hacking ring, fondly referred to as E-Nazi's, finally succeeded, forcing Connect - Ireland's staff to physically pull the plug on their servers for twenty-four hours. In order to prevent a recurrence Connect - Ireland has decided to take the 'Nuclear Option' of upgrading all of their hardware and software during this downtime. Connect - Ireland wishes to apologise for the disruption in service that this will mean for the many community projects and commercial customers who use Connect - Ireland's Internet service but believes that this was the only responsible course of action. As a top-level domain guardian Connect - Ireland has a special responsibility to ensure that none of its services are used as a base for attacks on other systems. An international effort to trace all those responsible has been launched by the system administrators of the institutions affected, including Connect - Ireland. Connect - Ireland would like to thank the many people who have volunteered their assistance at this time, from those who helped man the phones to the Linux gurus who helped us to ensure that no damage was done to users accounts. We would also like to thank one of our oldest users, who wishes to remain anonymous, who came in and made tea, coffee and snacks for the technical staff. A formal protest is being lodged with the Indonesian Embassy, London. Working with you ! support@connect.ie -- i-Contact Video Network, Video for Posative change http://www.gifford.co.uk/i-contact mailto:i-contact@gifford.co.uk c/o 76 Mina Road, Bristol, England Telephone +44 (0)117 914 0188 Please Visit our website and join our Email list. http://www.gifford.co.uk/i-contact/stuff/nicked.html "In the Thames Valley, it seems that journalists covering demos may get arrested on the grounds that they are protesters in disguise." http://www.gifford.co.uk/i-contact/stuff/foxtv.html "I used to think there was nothing worse than seeing a good story killed because the special interest of a news organization...I was wrong. There is something much, much worse" ---------------------------------- Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Mail administrative request to 'majordomo@hrea.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at: http://www.human-rights.net/huridocs-tech.
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