Hackaanvallen of terrorists pose no great danger. That sets beveiligingsonderzoeker Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure. Further than defacements, many extremist groups do not, although that could change.
Although the technical skills of terrorists should not be underestimated – “there are no stupid villagers on donkeys,” said Hypponen – they form, as yet no great danger.
“As far as I can estimate, there is as yet no cyber-terrorism,” said Hypponen at the RSA Conference, a security conference in San Francisco.
“Extremist groups are now working for instance with defacements,” according to Hypponen. Thus, during a riot over cartoons that Islam mock Danish websites gedefaced. This is the front page of a website is replaced by a message from the hacker. “Defacements are not very interesting,” he says.
However, there is a case known where terrorists malware wagers to the users of internet banking to money. That money – a total of 3.5 million dollars – via online poker sites laundered and then used to make equipment for terrorists to purchase. The attackers, however, were not very technologically literate, and hired a Russian expert in the technical work to be done.
Furthermore, internet game is a support function. So use terrorists, according to Hypponen internet for propaganda, which they, for example, dedicated websites, Twitter, YouTube, and digital magazines bets. Also, they use the internet for mutual communication, in which they sometimes have their own encryption software bets, and the “recruiting” of terrorists.
Hypponens words are in contrast with warnings from different sides about the danger of ‘cyber-terrorism’. So said a former advisor of the Us government in 2010 that hackers ‘pipelines can explode, trains derail, or for example, too much electricity from the mains can run’. The U.s. army has a special division that deals with the combating of cybercrime.
The conclusions of Hypponen, however, are consistent with a threat assessment that the Dutch government at the end of last year published. “Terrorists have the intention to create large-scale disturbance or disruption, but as yet there are no indications that they have the capacities, and that this threat is very high”, is in the analysis to read.
A greater role in the area of cybercrime, according to Hypponen reserved for criminals that money gone, ‘hacktivists’ who have a particular ideological aim and national governments. Probably there are one or more national authorities behind the Stuxnet virus, which is used to Iranian nuclear institutions to disrupt.