Donna
06-02-03, 19:44
Ooit een site bezocht waar een controversieel stukje staat, op refresh gedrukt en dat stuk vervolgens nooit meer kunnen terugvinden? Gebeurt wel vaker. Zoals de site van computerworld bijvoorbeeld. Waar een stukje stond met citaten van bronnen van HUM, een radicale islamitische beweging, die geclaimd zouden hebben dat ze verantwoordelijk zijn voor de versprijding van SQL slammer, het snelst verspreide wormvirus ooit, een week of twee geleden.
Het bleek in werkelijkheid niet om een echte radicale islamitische beweging te gaan, maar om een Amerikaanse journalist, die zich voordeed als radicaal om dit verhaal op computerworld te krijgen. En daarna ongetwijfeld in alle media.
Lees maar.......
--------------
[Here's an excerpt from Computerworld's now-deleted article that appeared yesterday: 'A radical Islamic group that is on the U.S. State Department's list of designated terrorist organizations has claimed responsibility for the release of the Slammer worm late last month... In an exclusive exchange of e-mails with Computerworld spanning two weeks, Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), a self-proclaimed radical Islamic jihadist organization, said the group released the Slammer worm as part of a "cyber jihad" aimed at creating fear and uncertainty on the Internet... According to Mujahid, one of the worm's first instructions, a so-called "push" command, includes the number 42, which is the sum of the letters H, U and M if you add up the numbers that correspond to the point at which each one falls in the Roman alphabet. H is the eighth letter; U is the 21st; M is
the 13th...' --]
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,78238,00.html
Journalist perpetrates online terror hoax
By DAN VERTON
FEBRUARY 06, 2003
Editor's note: An online story yesterday by Computerworld reporting on terrorist claims of responsibility for having authored the Slammer worm was based on a hoax. The security reporter who wrote the story, Dan Verton, explains in this first-person account how he and others were misled by a U.S. journalist who pretended to be someone named "Abu Mujahid." The original story has been removed from Computerworld's Web site.
---
There's an old Italian proverb that says, "Those who sleep with dogs
will rise with fleas." That's the situation in which I now find
myself.
While catching a few fleas isn't unusual in the murky, dog-eat-dog
world of reporting on hackers and terrorists, this hoax is different.
Had it been a simple scam, I might be embarrassed. But in this case,
the scammer is Brian McWilliams, a former reporter for Newsbytes.com,
which is now owned by The Washington Post Co.
For the past 11 months, McWilliams has operated a Web site,
www.harkatulmujahideen.org, which once belonged to a real terrorist
organization based in Pakistan. It was during legitimate research into
pro-terrorist Web sites that I first came across the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen site and McWilliams.
In an elaborate scheme to dupe security companies and journalists,
McWilliams acknowledged last night that he purchased the domain name
last March and registered it under the name of "Abu-Mujahid of
Karachi." He also left a legitimate mirror site in place on a server
in Pakistan and by his own admission has been receiving e-mails from
people looking to join the actual terrorist group. He then posed as
Abu Mujahid in his communications with people and the news media.
[...remainder snipped...]
Het bleek in werkelijkheid niet om een echte radicale islamitische beweging te gaan, maar om een Amerikaanse journalist, die zich voordeed als radicaal om dit verhaal op computerworld te krijgen. En daarna ongetwijfeld in alle media.
Lees maar.......
--------------
[Here's an excerpt from Computerworld's now-deleted article that appeared yesterday: 'A radical Islamic group that is on the U.S. State Department's list of designated terrorist organizations has claimed responsibility for the release of the Slammer worm late last month... In an exclusive exchange of e-mails with Computerworld spanning two weeks, Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), a self-proclaimed radical Islamic jihadist organization, said the group released the Slammer worm as part of a "cyber jihad" aimed at creating fear and uncertainty on the Internet... According to Mujahid, one of the worm's first instructions, a so-called "push" command, includes the number 42, which is the sum of the letters H, U and M if you add up the numbers that correspond to the point at which each one falls in the Roman alphabet. H is the eighth letter; U is the 21st; M is
the 13th...' --]
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,78238,00.html
Journalist perpetrates online terror hoax
By DAN VERTON
FEBRUARY 06, 2003
Editor's note: An online story yesterday by Computerworld reporting on terrorist claims of responsibility for having authored the Slammer worm was based on a hoax. The security reporter who wrote the story, Dan Verton, explains in this first-person account how he and others were misled by a U.S. journalist who pretended to be someone named "Abu Mujahid." The original story has been removed from Computerworld's Web site.
---
There's an old Italian proverb that says, "Those who sleep with dogs
will rise with fleas." That's the situation in which I now find
myself.
While catching a few fleas isn't unusual in the murky, dog-eat-dog
world of reporting on hackers and terrorists, this hoax is different.
Had it been a simple scam, I might be embarrassed. But in this case,
the scammer is Brian McWilliams, a former reporter for Newsbytes.com,
which is now owned by The Washington Post Co.
For the past 11 months, McWilliams has operated a Web site,
www.harkatulmujahideen.org, which once belonged to a real terrorist
organization based in Pakistan. It was during legitimate research into
pro-terrorist Web sites that I first came across the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen site and McWilliams.
In an elaborate scheme to dupe security companies and journalists,
McWilliams acknowledged last night that he purchased the domain name
last March and registered it under the name of "Abu-Mujahid of
Karachi." He also left a legitimate mirror site in place on a server
in Pakistan and by his own admission has been receiving e-mails from
people looking to join the actual terrorist group. He then posed as
Abu Mujahid in his communications with people and the news media.
[...remainder snipped...]