Sunday, January 22, 2012

Israeli hacks dismissed as unprofessional

The Israeli hacker group, which threatened to take down several government websites in the UAE and Saudi Arabia is not made up of professional hackers, according to Costin Raiu, director, Global Research and Analysis, Kaspersky Lab.

Israeli hacks dismissed as unprofessional

 

"The really professional hackers never tell and do, they first do it and then they tell. If you start bragging about what you are going to do to the target, obviously the target will be prepared and it will be much harder for the hackers to bring down the website or hack into the target because they will be waiting for the attack. That means the Israeli hackers [IDF-Team] are not very professional, maybe they are script kiddies with rootkits, not really professional hackers like the Anonymous group which hacked into the Stratfor intelligence company," he said.

When Anonymous hacked into Stratfor, first they hacked into the company and collected all the documents, then wiped the company's servers and a week later they disclosed the attack, they were waiting to see what the reaction would be from Stratfor, said Raiu.

"The people like the Israeli hackers, they are kind of begging to be caught and arrested, they are like 'Yes, we are going to hack you', and in a few days they start to hack the specific entity, they [the websites] will collect all the logs and send that to the police and I don't know how that will work in Israel, but they are begging to be arrested, so it is not professional hacking," he said.

Kaspersky Lab has predicted that IDF-Team will cause more disruptions in service, but will not be able to commit any major hacks.

Raiu has said that the Middle East may become a centre for cyber-crime, due to the current conflicts and poor economic climate in some countries, but said that the UAE is unlikely to become part of this."There are some conflicts going on in the Middle East and the situation economically is not so good in countries like Syria, Lebanon, and Libya, and usually this creates a friendly environment for cyber-crime. People who lose their jobs are more likely to get into cyber-crime if they were previously very skilled. Always this is one of the main catalysts and ingredients for cyber crime, so it is possible the Middle East may become a cyber-crime hub. In my opinion it won't happen here in the UAE, but in some of the other countries which are facing tough economic times, it is possible," he said.

Raiu added that the culture of cyber-crime prevention that is being cultivated in the UAE with the help of government entities such as aeCERT, will raise awareness about the problems and damage that cyber-crime causes.

"I think it is wonderful there is such an interest into improving security in the UAE. I think in the future it will create a counter-culture to hackers," he said.

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