Internet terrorism - Definition, methods and cases
If you thought that the only form of terrorism is the one we see daily on our televisions where we see blood, you are wrong.There is much more in terrorism used by militant and terrorist groups as well as by people who engage in destruction and obstruction activities.Also known as digital terror, terrorism on the Internet includes methods that can cause serious loss of data, network and websites and, in rare cases, heating systems in the point where they explode asIf a bomb had exploded.
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What is internet terrorism
D’une manière générale, le terme Internet Terrorism ou Cyber Terrorism se rapporte à toute activité effectuée en utilisant Internet dans l’intention de détruire quelque chose de précieux ou de désactiver tout service pendant une période de temps limitée ou indéfinie.
There are two faces to this.One is actively used by internet pirates and malware from the Internet.The other is not very visible but is used by regular terrorist elements.We cannot say which is the most dangerous, but in most cases, the latter often causes loss of life in one way or another.
How the terrorists use the Internet for terrorism
The first known case of terrorism on the Internet was the use of cryptography for the transmission of messages by certain terrorist groups.Their linguistic symbols resemble works of art and they have actively used them for the transmission of coded messages in images.It was shocking when one of my Arab friends there in the north of India gave me a CD containing some of the symbols of the languages of the Middle East.He even showed me how to put symbols in an artistic way to give the impression that a particular file is only a digital image.
I don't know if they still use such tactics because I have never heard of such things in recent years.But of course, they use the Internet to provoke people and arouse dissatisfaction.Such instruments or resources exist on the internet and I do not know why the authorities do not delete them.Of course, the Internet is only one of the many ways to sow terror!If you are interested in the way terrorists use the Internet for terrorist purposes, please read this article on Wikipedia (in particular, consult quotation n ° 13).
Internet explosives-e-mail bombs;Logical bombs;and zip bombs
Leaving the second aspect of the Internet terror to the authorities, let's talk more about the first aspect - that used by malicious users to target websites, business databases, whether on personal servers or on the cloud,messaging systems and sometimes a whole network.- Or rather, the intranet of different organizations.
DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) is one of the most common methods that are practiced using one or more of the following techniques.This list is not understandable;It only contains the elements I know and that I have found important enough to let you know.In fact, you may already know all or part of these elements:
- Bombes par e-mail – Utilisé pour faire tomber les sites Web et les serveurs de messagerie
- Bombes logiques – Utilisé pour déclencher des actions qui peuvent endommager les bases de données ; essuyer les disques durs, etc. – En d’autres termes, cette méthode est principalement utilisée pour détruire complètement ou partiellement les données afin de les rendre irrécupérables
- Bombes Zip – Une bombe zip ou le Zip of Death est un fichier d’archive malveillant conçu pour planter ou rendre inutilisable le système qui le lit. Il est souvent utilisé pour désactiver un logiciel antivirus afin de créer une ouverture pour des virus plus traditionnels. Unique en son genre, la méthode est très intéressante et peut être mise en œuvre à la fois pour les attaques DDoS et pour rendre inutilisables des ordinateurs/serveurs et des réseaux entiers. Selon la conception des bombes Zip, l’ensemble des intranets des organisations peut être détruit, causant des dommages temporaires ou permanents.
What are logical bombs
You may remember an explosion of pipeline.It is said that a logical bomb triggered a series of events that led to an overheating that led to a non -nuclear historical explosion.
A logical bomb, as its name suggests, is based on a fulfilled condition.You must have programmed using the If-Then-Else settings when you were a child.A logical bomb is the same - except that the person who uses the software does not know that something "unexpected" will happen if a certain condition is fulfilled.A known example of logical bombs was the deletion of the employee database when an employee was dismissed (that is to say when the registration containing his information was deleted).I do not remember the exact body (company name, employee, etc.), but I'm sure you can find more information on this on the Internet.
What are the e-mail bombs
E-mail bombs are easier to make and, as such, are also easier to identify.In most cases, the email address of an individual or an organization is on the recipient side.The main objective, in this case, is to send so many emails to an address that the plant server plants.In some cases, if the same server is used to accommodate emails and websites/databases, damage would be more than just ranging from messaging identifiers.This is probably the reason why the number of emails you can send to anyone using one of the email services, whether public or private, is limited.You can use email marketing companies, but they too take care of the distribution of your diffusion list so that nothing is negatively affected.
What is a zip bomb
Among the most unsuspected internet bombs are zip bombs.It is actually a zip file containing a very large encrypted file in five or more rotations.If you compress the real file once, then create a zip zip, it is a rotation.Usually, five rotations are enough to compress a text file containing a single letter - such as “A” - billions and billions of times, a very small size, which seems completely innocent.It is impossible that a human can create such a text file.It would be created using a special program and such programs are easy to create.For example, you can create a loop in C language and continue to write the letter "A" until the file reaches the desired size.
The nucleus is often a text file because these files are easier to compress at 1/k+ times their original size.For example, compression of certain 4.5 petacts (each letter being an byte) can lead to a ZIP file only 42 KB - for transmission on the Internet.This example is known as a bomb 42.zip.Even if you used (note the past and see the following paragraph) a good anti-Malware, it would engage in an infinite loop to analyze the content of such a zip bomb.And if you decide to extract them as is (by renouncing scanning), where would your hard drive obtain the space necessary to store the content of the multi-compressed file?This leads to a hard drive failure and, possibly, a system or server failure.
It is not that our most loved anti-Malware companies are not aware of these bombs-in fact digital files-with the potential to bring down and destroy all digital (and sometimes physical) active ingredients from anyoneor business - private or federal.By learning the existence of zip bombs, I had a kind of fright in my mind, it is reassuring to know that most of the anti-malware software renowned are able to identify such bombs and stop them beforeThey "explode"!
A method that I found that these anti-malware use to identify and stop the Internet explosive is as follows:
While the above would apply mainly to Zip bombs, for e-mail bombs, anti-spam filters are today more than sufficient.However, you must take precautions as usual - do not give your messaging identifier in public places.If you receive a message asking you to confirm if you have subscribed to a service or a broadcast list, and you don't remember subscriber, refuse it.And if you use your own servers for email, keep them separate and well equipped with the latest anti-spam filters!
Among the three types of Internet explosives or digital bombs explained here, logical bombs are the most difficult with the potential of ... You know what has happened to the Pipeline Trans -Siberian!
Additional readings: article on terrorism on the Internet of Etsu.edu.Image credits: European police organization, World News Network, IBM Global Security, NY.
