|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesians take protests to the net
From Atika Shubert
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Anti-Australian protests have been widespread in Indonesia in recent months, and become particularly intense since the October 12 nightclub bombings in Bali. But the form the protests have taken has transformed from the street rallies witnessed last week in Jakarta when students demonstrated against terror-suspect raids targeting Indonesian families in Australia. Now, political protest is taking a different, high-tech, form. More than 200 websites have been hacked or defaced by Indonesian hackers, since the Australian security raids. Hundreds of Australian websites have been vandalized and defaced. Open the bigcountry.com.au site and you get this message instead: "Who is the Terrorist? We or You?". The culprits are Indonesian hackers, often young college students, looking to make a name for themselves in cyberspace. They are increasingly latching onto political protests to gain hacker fame, this time focusing on the Australian terror raids. "In my opinion they're doing it just for fun," said Budi Rahardjo, an Indonesian computer security analyst. "Political reason? Yes, probably a little. But mostly for fun. Just for gaining popularity," said Rahardjo. "I guess they do feel that they are heroes. But most people don't believe that. In my opinion, cracking websites, that's not a hero at all." Neighbors Indonesia and Australia have often had strained relations, a situation made worse by Australian support for East Timor's independence vote in 1999. With the majority of the deaths in the Bali tragedy Australian tourists, Canberra has turned its focus to potential terror links within Australian shores. Commercial targetsIn addition to website vandalism, credit card fraud is rampant in Indonesia. Most of it occurs in cyber cafes where you pay per minute, log on with your favorite computer nickname, hack and leave without anyone knowing who you are. Small businesses with outmoded computer protection bear the brunt of a so-called cyber attacks. Most are simply an easily fixed nuisance. But commercial websites incapacitated by an attack do lose money. Now, Indonesia's hackers are threatening to step up the cyber war by tampering with routing systems that could shut down commercial sites for days. Computer security experts say in a cyber war your best offense is a good defense. Keep your system upgraded, patch the security holes and install a firewall that prevents unwanted users from coming in. If you don't, they warn, you leave yourself open to a cyber attack.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
