The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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>I suspect that he's about 12 years old, and thinks
>that he knows everything when in reality he knows
>nothing. As a result, I am extreemly reluctant to
>prevent further attacks on my machines in an agressive
>manner.
>
>Alun Harford
Possibly, but it is the effect which must determine the response. Let's
not forget that while the "child soldier" is abused by circumstance, he
is nonetheless deadly.
Following is the cover letter for a disk with some of the strange posts I
got. Both were hand delivered this morning, before the scheduled meeting
with the peace group, into the hands of Congressman Hastert's secretary,
at his local office. She took the incident seriously and I was assured
that she would give them to Speaker Hastert.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
To Congressman J. Dennis Hastert
August 27, 2003
The accompanying floppy disk file, "spam" is an example - a small portion
of the messages I recently recieved as a result of a little
"cyber-terrorism" in a denial of service attack last night.
This attack was visited on at least several, and perhaps many more,
members of the casi discussion list (casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk),
part of the "Campagn Against Sanctions in Iraq" web site based at
Cambridge University, England. These message clogged up the inboxes of
myself and other list members, and in my case cost me money (and a fair
bit of time) since I get my email through a JUNO toll phone number.
While everyone is annoyed, at least, by the massive amount of spam now on
the internet, this is not ordinary spam, but an attack directed at
disrupting the free flow of ideas through open discussion. The
possibilities of this sort of action is very disturbing: any group, or
any individual, can be effectively silenced and denied use of the
internet by being overloaded with extraneous material (not to mention the
possibilities of computer virii). Organizations can also be virtually
shut down, of course.
While freedom is a necessary component of the internet, and striclty
controlling access is fraught with danger, we nonetheless need to take
some steps to enable people to respond effectively to such attacks, and
to hold those who mount them responsible. As an analogy, we can walk in
the streets freely, but mugging or harassing people is illegal, and there
are clear and well established remedies for the victims.
I ask that this danger be addressed on a federal level so as to provide
protection for organizations, businesses, and individuals.
Robert Steel
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