The federal government has warned that Chinese hackers plan to hit American and British-based Websites to protest Gulf War II - an intra-agency alert the Department of Homeland Security inadvertently posted on a government Website, according to the Washington Post.
The warning indicated the most likely technique would be a round of denial-of-service attacks, flooding the sites with traffic enough , as well as selected Website defacements, although neither the accidentally-posted alert nor the Post indicated just when these attacks might begin - or how long they'd occur.
Homeland Security Department spokesman David Wray told the Post the information's release was "inadvertent and the information - while not classified - is sensitive." It's also an embarrassment for the National Infrastructure Protection Center, the Post said, since it was that agency's home page where the "accidental" posting occurred - at a time they're said to be trying to build trust with private companies they hope will share information about actual and pending cyberattacks.
In fact, the Feds may have blown one critical way of monitoring likely hack attacks by the blunder. Homeland Security had gotten wise to the possible Chinese hack attacks by monitoring forums where the suspected hackers-in-waiting lurked, but "inadvertently" posting the alert on the NIPC homepage may have blown that monitoring method. "When these groups see this alert, they'll potentially be able to see ways that they're being monitored and avoid those forums in the future," said computer virus defense expert Fred Cohen to the Post. "All this from an agency that is supposed to be trusted to keep this level of information appropriately confidential."
