"Impossible to Trail"? It looks like Al-Qaeda is broadcasting from Texas.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=1843191
Posted on 12/03/2002 8:49:51 PM PST by JohnathanRGalt
"Impossible to Trail"? It looks like Al-Qaeda is broadcasting from Texas.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=1843191
BERLIN (Reuters) - An Internet message purportedly from al Qaeda claiming responsibility for last week's Kenya attack presents investigators with major difficulties in tracking the claim's origin, computer experts said Tuesday.
"If you know what you are doing, you can hide your tracks in the Internet so well that you will be untraceable," said Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus security at Helsinki-based F-Secure.
In the statement posted Monday at an Islamist Web site, a group claiming to be the "Political Office of Qaeda al-Jihad" said it had carried out last week's attacks on an Israeli hotel and airliner in Kenya.
"The fighters of al Qaeda return to the same place where the Crusader-Jewish coalition was hit four years ago," said the statement, referring to the 1998 bloody attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The previously unheard of "Army of Palestine" had also claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks in a faxed statement via a Lebanese media organization.
The supposed al Qaeda message was posted in Arabic on the site www.azfalrasas.com, which roughly means "melody of gunfire," and shows an AK-47 automatic rifle and a tank.
The site calls itself the first jihad-related chatroom on the Internet, and the author of the message on Kenya is registered as "Bin Laden the Islamic Fighter." A second Web site posting the message was accompanied by pictures of bin Laden.
"There are two ways to do it. One way is that they have legal access to post on this Web Site," said Yoni Malachi, an Israeli Internet expert.
"The other option is they actually broke into this Web Site, that they didn't get legal permission to post."
Both options would be available to either a real al Qaeda member or a hoaxer, although how much information the user leaves behind depends on their computer sophistication.
"Anyone who sends e-mail or surfs the Internet leaves clues that can be followed," said Christian Brockert, spokesman for the German Federal Police, which conducted an extensive investigation into the German roots of the September 11 attacks.
MIXED SUCCESSES
E-mails helped Pakistani police make a series of arrests following the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl earlier this year. Officials have made arrests on child pornography and other cases by following Internet leads, in some instances helped by hackers who know the ins and outs of the Internet best.
A number of September 11 hijackers and alleged co-plotters used the Internet. Mohamed Atta, the ringleader who flew the first plane into the World Trade Center even had his own web page with a short description of his studies in the northern German city of Hamburg.
"I'm an Egyptian student. Now I'm studying urban planning in Germany," Atta wrote in 1997 on his Internet page. "I'm now preparing my graduation project about the old city of Aleppo."
Another suspected co-plotter from Hamburg, Said Bahaji, has been linked to militant Islamic web sites. But he apparently did not leave behind enough clues for investigators and is at large.
Computer experts say even if police with subpoena powers trace an e-mail or web page to the computer that sent it, the sender may remain elusive.
"Even though you might be able to trace it back to the original machine where the information was posted from, it might not help us so much," said Hypponen.
"Most likely the trails will go back to a cybercafe, or public library, or public university computer, which most likely won't give us any information," he said.
"Then again, there might be a surveillance camera in the cyber cafe, or the street next to it, which would show who was there at the time it was posted."
I find it hard to believe intelligence communities would take this message seriously given the poster's screen-name. The 'Army of Palestine' claim seems much more realistic. The AOP is probably a just a name that specific group of al-Qaeda operatives came up with after putting the Kenya mission together, in order to help inspire the 'uprising'.
These webhosters are really starting to make me sick. Posting someone's name, address, phone number and a map to their house along with a suggestion they be paid a visit is not freedom of expression. It's incitement to violence. The CI Host people must think their clients have the right to scream FIRE in crowded theaters whenever they feel like it too. They don't. Legal is legal and that ain't.
Actually, the posters to these chat rooms all have 'jehadi' type names. Of course, I'm Johnathanrgalt and you're thatdewd. How many take us seriously?
These webhosters are really starting to make me sick.
Me too. I'm all for capitalism and making an honest buck but the ISPs seem to be overstepping some boundary of common decency here.
Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for Kenya Attack from BedfordHamas owned ISP is justifying Human Slavery from RichardsonHezbullah is broadcasting from San AntonioLaskar Jehad is broadcasting from Houston
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True, my own in particular (blush), but I meant the poster directly calling himself "Bin Laden" in his screen name. If al-Qaeda posted a statement, I would expect them to use a group name. If it was a direct statement from OBL it would have gone to al-jazeera or a similar mouthpiece long before that site saw it. The way that statement was presented, it's either some prankish teen or the website itself trying to drum up publicity (and advertising revenues).
No doubt. If the guvment would just enforce its existing laws, the fines against these people should be substantial enough to cause them to appreciate the value of an honest dollar. I would hope so, anyway. There's substantial fines for everything else, supporting terrorists should be worth more than just a few bucks.
Hack jobs, DOS attacks, domain redirects,... etc. don't work. (at least for more than a few hours). Over the years, ISPs have experienced most everything hackers have been able to throw at them and, if the ISP was good, they have been able to beef up their security to minimize any damage and quickly recover when an attacker gets through.
Kavkaz.org was up for years and weathered many attacks from Russian hackers. In just the past month or so, the Jewish sites Haganah has withstood:
»Osama: alHckrz Called Upon to Wage Jihad Against the 'al Haganah'
»Denial of Service Attack from Houston
»Cyber Attack from Saudi Arabia
»Cyber Attack from Kuwait
»Cyber Attacks, weapon of Hamas
Ping floods can be traced back to their origin and stopped. Unless the hacker is very good computer forensic experts can trace them back to their home base.
Easiest and legal method to shut down web sites posting hateful things is to talk the ISP and have them do it. If the ISP refuses then talk to the media, law enforcement, and the ISPs customers.
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