Al-Qaida's Shamukh Chat Forum Under Attack

Al-Qaida's top-tier Al-Shamukh chat forum is facing an ongoing electronic attack, that has rendered the forum totally unreachable, according to a terrorism expert.The attack on Shamukh is similar to one reported in June this year, and first the domain and then subsequently the underlying data server were both taken down separately, Evan Kohlmann of Flashpoint Partners said in an email late Monday.

The difference this time however is that al-Qaida now has an alternate secondary forum to distribute its propaganda and media, known as "Al-Fidaa". "In other words, shutting down Shamukh is still quite an annoyance, and it certainly causes jihadi webmasters headaches, but it hasn't had the same effect of gagging al-Qaida's media machine," said Kohlmann who has spent over a decade tracking al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.

Al-Fidaa is not yet under attack, but it would be interesting to see if a similar electronic attack is launched against this forum as well.

The identity of the attackers is still not known, but it looks like someone launched a coordinated assault on the forum that was designed to cripple the whole system, Kohlmann said.

Typically, that's not the kind of thing that happens because of a lightning strike or a handful of people relying on a tool like LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon), he added.

LOIC is a network stress-testing tool that floods sites with data, making them unable to serve legitimate visitors. This type of attack is called a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

Kohlmann said in a Twitter message earlier on Monday that web domain names servicing Shamukh chat forum have come under apparent attack by unknown hostile parties. He later reported that the forum was "totally unreachable".

A threat to "cut the tongue" of U.S. TV host and comedian David Letterman was posted on the forum in August.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/240637/alqaidas_shamukh_chat_forum_under_attack_says_expert.html

Anonymous unsheathes new, potent attack weapon

Better DDoS attacks ahead

Members of Anonymous are developing a new attack tool as an alternative to the LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) DDoS utility.
The move follows a spate of arrests thought to be connected to use of the LOIC, which by default does nothing to hide a user's identity.

The new tool, dubbed RefRef, due to be released in September, uses a different approach to knocking out websites. LOIC floods a targeted site with TCP or UDP packets, a relatively unsophisticated yet effective approach, especially when thousands of users use the tool to join voluntary botnets.

RefRef, by contrast, is based on a more sophisticated application-level approach designed to tie up or crash the servers behind targeted websites instead of simply flooding them with junk traffic, according to a blog post on the development by an Anonymous-affiliated blog.
"Anonymous is developing a new DDoS tool," the post explains. "So far, what they have is something that is platform neutral, leveraging JavaScript and vulnerabilities within SQL to create a devastating impact on the targeted website."
RefRef, which uses a "target site's own processing power against itself" is undergoing field trials, with tests against Pastebin, the blog post by AnonOps Communications reports.
Arrests in UK, Spain and Turkey connected to LOIC-powered attacks have already prompted some core members of Anonymous to move towards using a new server and dropping LOIC in favour of other attack tools, such as Slow Loris and Keep-Dead DoS. This now seems to be purely a stop-gap measure while RefRef undergoes development.
LOIC was originally developed for network stress-testing, but later released into the public domain where, years later, it became a weapon of choice for hacktivists, most notably in the Operation Payback attacks against financial service organisations that blocked accounts controlled by Wikileaks last December following the controversial release of US diplomatic cables.
The problem with LOIC is that unless attacks are anonymised by routing them through networks, such as Tor, then users will be flinging junk packets that are stamped with their IP address at the targeted systems. These IP addresses can then be traced back to suspects by police.
Whether or not RefRef does a better job at anonymisation, by default, remains unclear but early experiments suggest that Anonymous is brewing a more potent attack tool. "Supposedly, the tool will DoS a targeted website with ease," Dancho Danchev, an independent cyber-threats analyst told El Reg. ®

Anonymous targets American Israel PAC: Operation Palestine

OpPalestine
Sunday those claiming to represent the Internet hacktivist group known as "Anonymous" launched a cyber attack against The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The attack is aimed at the website, aipac.org, and conducted via a modified LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) used to execute DDoS attacks. A distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users.
According to the announcement from Anonymous:

America's Pro-Israel Lobby (AIPAC) is known for being one of the most powerful lobbies, keeping politicians in their pockets. During 2009, the U.S. provided Israel with at least 8.2 million per day in military aid and $0 in military aid to the Palestinians.
We are having none of it.

The notice goes on to give "attack instructions" on the installation and utilization of the LOIC (low orbit ion cannon).
Currently Anonymous is experiencing something of a renaissance, with numerous operations running as well as a robust recruitment drive in full swing. Using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as well as Internet Relay Chat rooms (IRC) the group has conducted successful campaigns against such targets as Scientology, Visa and MasterCard, the Westboro Baptist church and the Internet security firm HBGary.

Nevertheless, it is important to recall that Anonymous is a mysterious organization - a headless monster, lacking any identifying hierarchy or command structure. No one press release, no one statement, no one tweet, no one blog post, speaks for all who pledge allegiance to the group. While there apparently are leaders and followers involved in particular operations, there is no leadership in the traditional sense.

At the time of posting, the AIPAC website was still up and running. The announcement and other information is available via Twitter search: #OpPalestine, as well as a Facebook page "Operation Palestine."

http://www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-national/anonymous-targets-american-israel-pac-operation-palestine