DDoS threat real despite absence of “cyber jihad”

A predicted DDoS attack on the West has not yet materialised – but that doesn’t mean governments and businesses can drop their guard

The date for a predicted “cyber jihad” against Western institutions has been and gone – but the threat posed to websites and networks by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks remains.

The al-Qaeda terrorist network was allegedly co-ordinating an online attack against 15 western websites, which would start on 11 November. The DDoS attacks would expand until "hundreds of thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold numbers of anti-Muslim sites," online military intelligence magazine DEBKAfile said.

Use Jihad 2.0 for DDoS attack
The magazine speculated that the attack would be launched with a known piece of software, improbably called Electronic Jihad Version 2.0. Anyone wanting to join the DDoS attack would download Jihad 2.0 to their computer and specify the amount of bandwidth they wanted to dedicate to bringing down the internet.

Previous DDoS attacks threatened
The likelihood of al-Qaeda carrying out DDoS attacks on probably American websites has been raised before. In December 2006, the US Department of Homeland Security warned banks and financial institutions of a possible al-Qaeda cyber attack, nicknamed "the Electronic Battle of Guantanamo”.

According to CIO.co.uk, “that warning turned out to be a dud.” But in March 2007, The Times reported that British police had found evidence that the terrorist group had been plotting to “bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange.”

Stay vigilant against DDoS attack
The newspaper said this reflected “the constantly changing threat from al-Qaeda and related Islamic extremist groups.” And, despite the failure of the attacks so far, businesses would be wise to stay vigilant and well-prepared against a DDoS attack – whether from al-Qaeda or anyone else.

Webscreen is an IT network security technology designed to protect web servers and other network appliances from a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). Its unique Guarantee of Service (GoS) technology lessens the impact of denial of service (DDoS) attacks and lets IT managers maintain access for critical system users and important customers during periods of high network activity.

Webscreen also includes a range of network optimisation and monitoring tools to help deliver maximum performance from your network infrastructure resources. To find out more, call 0870 3890022.