Experts disagree on seriousness of attacks on government Web sites
Julian E. Barnes and Josh Meyer - Tribune Washington BureauIssue date: 7/23/09 Section: Real News
WASHINGTON - Government Web sites were operating normally on Wednesday, officials said, after a broad attack on public and private computer systems that targeted sites operated by the White House, the New York Stock Exchange and The Washington Post, among others.
The attack caused little damage, but touched off a debate among experts over whether it represented a mild nuisance or the opening salvo of a potential electronic war.
At least for now, federal officials and experts said it would be impossible to determine who was behind the attack. However, South Korean intelligence officials reportedly have fingered North Korea. One senior congressional official briefed on the attacks said U.S. officials consider North Korea a suspect, although other top experts played down that likelihood.
Amit Yoran, the former computer security czar for the Bush administration, was skeptical of North Korean involvement, and said the attacks appeared to rely on only slight variants on known methods and techniques.
"They're loud and clumsy and not really what we would expect out of a sophisticated adversary," said Yoran, now chairman of a computer security firm. "There are a million conspiracy theories we can come up with, but what we need to do is the forensic analysis and then come up with conclusions."
The computer attack, which began on July 4, temporarily disabled some federal government Web sites, including those operated by the Treasury Department, Transportation Department and Federal Trade Commission.
The attack also appeared to target the White House, State Department and Defense Department Web sites. Because of stronger defenses, Pentagon Web sites were not affected and attempts to crash the White House Web site failed. The attacks also targeted private Web sites, such as those of the stock exchange and The Washington Post.
The "denial of service" attack, as it is known, appeared to wind down by Wednesday. At its height, it used an estimated 50,000 private computers that were infected with a virus that used them in attempts to overwhelm the U.S. Web sites by constantly requesting access to them.
The attack caused little damage, but touched off a debate among experts over whether it represented a mild nuisance or the opening salvo of a potential electronic war.
At least for now, federal officials and experts said it would be impossible to determine who was behind the attack. However, South Korean intelligence officials reportedly have fingered North Korea. One senior congressional official briefed on the attacks said U.S. officials consider North Korea a suspect, although other top experts played down that likelihood.
Amit Yoran, the former computer security czar for the Bush administration, was skeptical of North Korean involvement, and said the attacks appeared to rely on only slight variants on known methods and techniques.
"They're loud and clumsy and not really what we would expect out of a sophisticated adversary," said Yoran, now chairman of a computer security firm. "There are a million conspiracy theories we can come up with, but what we need to do is the forensic analysis and then come up with conclusions."
The computer attack, which began on July 4, temporarily disabled some federal government Web sites, including those operated by the Treasury Department, Transportation Department and Federal Trade Commission.
The attack also appeared to target the White House, State Department and Defense Department Web sites. Because of stronger defenses, Pentagon Web sites were not affected and attempts to crash the White House Web site failed. The attacks also targeted private Web sites, such as those of the stock exchange and The Washington Post.
The "denial of service" attack, as it is known, appeared to wind down by Wednesday. At its height, it used an estimated 50,000 private computers that were infected with a virus that used them in attempts to overwhelm the U.S. Web sites by constantly requesting access to them.
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