“Kaboom”

Our vigilant computer security buds at mi2g have some very interesting news:

This morning, the web and eMail servers of a prominent Islamic fundamentalist group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) were compromised by the anti-Islamic hacker group 4nti-Muja. This is the first significant example of anti-Islamic online retaliation.

HUM is thought to be linked to al-Qaeda and terrorism in Kashmir. The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl was investigating HUM and Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan prior to his kidnap in Karachi on 23rd January last year and subsequent brutal murder.

The message uploaded was: “You can change your name, but you cant hide from the 4nti-MUja. GWB and USA is comming for you. Can you say kaboom?”

Some eMails to and from HUM have been exposed. In particular, there is correspondence from 30th January between Dan Verton, Senior Writer at ComputerWorld, and HUM. Dan Verton has confirmed to the mi2g Intelligence Unit that the eMail exposed is genuine.

HUM claim to have been behind the release of the world’s fastest spreading ‘Slammer’ worm that caused nearly $1 Billion in economic damage worldwide. Dan Verton challenged and refuted their claim in the exposed eMail.

The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) web and eMail servers were still compromised at the time of writing this alert. [not visible now, 2:30 PM EST] One of the hyperlinks highlighted by the hackers leads to the story that Bill Gates of Microsoft and Hewlett Packard’s Compaq may have inadvertently supported a charity which the FBI have linked to al-Qaeda.

….”Since the middle of 2002, we have seen an aggressive build up of attacks from coalesced pro-Islamic hacker groups attacking Western interests which continues apace,” said DK Matai, Chairman and CEO of mi2g. “In early 2003, however, the anti-Islamic backlash predicted by the mi2g Intelligence Unit is beginning to materialize. This is a significant development and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

I sympathize with the taunting of terrorists and murderers, but is there more to these attacks – in both directions – other than sowing seeds of uncertainty amongst the opposition? Is there anything practical to be gained from this digital graffiti? If anyone has insight into this, please let me know.