Government Accidentally Does Its Job - April 7, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 7

April 7, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 7:

Published: 04/07/2003

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Government Accidentally Does Its Job

An alert from the new Department of Homeland Security warned that Chinese hackers were planning to attack U.S. and U.K. websites in an effort to protest the war in Iraq. The alert warned that the main plan was to render Web sites and networks unusable by flooding them with massive amounts of traffic. According to the alert, the hackers also planned to deface selected Web sites. The Department of Homeland Security sent the alert to government and industry officials to allow them to make preparations. The alert was also posted on the homepage of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), to allow the public to also prepare for possible loss of service or data that might result from a cyber attack. However, the public warning was unintentional and the alert was pulled shortly after being posted.

While a Homeland Security Department spokesman acknowledged that the information was not classified, they claimed it was “sensitive” and that it was not supposed to be released to the public. Apparently, the Homeland Security Department got the information by monitoring an online meeting that the hackers held to coordinate the attacks. The concern was that groups may be able to use the information contained in the alert to avoid being monitored in the future. However, no explanation was given for why some redacted public warning was not posted. While there are benefits to open communication between industry and government, it is not clear why the Department of Homeland Security planned to use government-derived information to help industry but not the public.