No Y2K cyberterror threats after all -- FBI

[Alan Olsen <alan@clueserver.org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/000108-000005.html

No Y2K cyberterror threats after all -- FBI

The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) reports no unusual
cyberterror activity under cover of the Y2K rollover, despite months of 
sensational warnings and apocalyptic predictions involving doomsday 
religious cults, white supremacists, conspiracy paranoiacs and hostile 
foreign powers.

   The level of physical threats and computer intrusions recorded from 31 
December to 5 January "was not beyond the norm you would usually see in 
that number of days," NIPC's Michael Vatis conceded.

   Vatis has testified before Congress on the numerous opportunities for 
extra computer mayhem provided by the Millennium Bug. In November the FBI 
published a study called "Project Megiddo" warning of numerous 
Millennium-related threats by religious cults. The Bureau warned that 
Millennium Bug havoc could nourish existing fears among the unbalanced. 
"Megiddo" refers to a hill in Israel associated with the Apocalypse.

   During her weekly press availability, US Attorney General Janet Reno 
dodged the question of why, if the FBI was so concerned, the rollover 
actually yielded so little in the way of anarchy. "The nice answer would be 
that there was no threat. What we must all do, I think, is...take 
reasonable precautions...when we have specific information that can inform 
the American people, that we advise them," she warbled.

   The NIPC did release a tool for discovering whether or not a Solaris 
2.5.1, 2.6 or Solaris 7 system is infected with any sort of distributed 
denial of service tool such as TRIN00 or Tribe Flood Network (or TFN & 
tnf2k), which has uncovered a smattering of intrusions now being 
investigated by the FBI.

   The download is available from NIPC's Web site.

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