The United States was violently attacked by a terrorist organization on September 11, 2001. Fanatics brainwashed by power and hatred for the American ideal murdered innocent men, women and children without remorse. Americans, long instilled with the belief that the United States was somehow impervious to such an attack, were shocked.

The scene in cyberspace was not that much different than in the real world. Across the Internet, people from around the world exchanged instant messages and emails in an attempt to understand Òwhy?Ó Immediately following the attack, news web sites the world over were choked by the curious and the concerned. There was also a group of activists watching and plotting from their computer screens. These Òhacktivists,Ó the geeky vandals who deface web pages in the name of some vague political or social cause, began to ask some questions of their own: ÒWhoÕs side do we take in this fight? Who can take down the biggest server cluster? Who is a better captain of the Enterprise: William Shatner, the other bald guy or Sam from Quantum Leap?Ó

Hacktivism is the work of a loose network of socialist rich kids in the western democracies hoping to grab some publicity for themselves in a celebrity-obsessed culture and maybe some cash in the process by defacing corporate/government web sites. One hacktivist, twenty year-old Jason Diekman of Mission Viejo, California, plead guilty in August 2001 to fraud, hacking and defacing the NASA website by replacing the NASA graphics with pictures of Muppets along with the message ÒSeSaMe sTrEeT Hax0rz is c0m1ng.Ó That innocuous vandalism was the act that got him some unwanted publicity, leading the FBI to his house. The FBI found that DiekmanÕs computer contained stolen credit card numbers he had used to buy $6,000 (US) in electronics. Diekman also admitted to hacking Stanford UniversityÕs computer system and Jet Propulsion LaboratoryÕs networks causing a total of $67,000 in damage. Remember, Diekman styled himself as a ÒhacktivistÓ whose political statement was nothing more than ÒSeSaMe sTrEeT Hax0rz is c0m1ng.Ó When convicted, I hope the judge sentences Diekman to complete a third grade grammar and spelling course.

Hacker geniuses like Diekman have been mulling their options in response to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some 60 hacktivists claiming to be "computer security enthusiasts" have banded together to deface or control Palestinian and Afghani web sites. According to a statement posted two days after the WTC towers fell by a group calling itself The Dispatchers, these hackers claimed to have brought down Palestinian-affiliated Internet Service Providers and would soon target Afghan web sites. It is unclear what evidence there is of these hack attacks since almost every news report I see says that the Palestinians are ÒrefugeesÓ forced from their homeland into the desert by the mean Israelis and most Afghans do not have electricity let alone AOL accounts.

The Dispatchers are undoubtedly well versed in Linuxª shell scripts and IP routing protocols, but their indignant ÒstatementsÓ to the press reveals them as chess club geeks trying so hard to be revolutionaries after reading Catcher In The Rye and The Fountainhead in one afternoon. "We, as a group, of individuals, have taken a stand, armed with technology...to disable our target in every method possible," The Dispatchers said in their statement. "As of September 11th, 2001, we have united to fight back and to show that we will not tolerate... this anymore."

While the Dispatchers were trying to tie down exactly how and what they were doing, German hackers in the Chaos Computer Club used their hacktivism to call for a truce in the cyberwar before it even started. In their own statement, the CCC said that appeals for attacks against Internet sites on either side of the issue were misguided. ÒThe Chaos Computer Club strongly condemns this appeal and asks the public to ignore said appeal and similar ones. Being a galactic union of hackers, we simply cannot imagine to divide the world into good and bad at this moment... The Chaos Computer Club, celebrating its 20th anniversary, demands informational freedom and at least world-wide, unhampered communication as a human right in its by-laws.Ó Good to know that there is a Ògalactic unionÓ of peace-loving computer geniuses out there appealing for peace through global moral relativism. There is no good or bad, there is just information across the Internet! I guess if the CCCÕs demands are not met, they would be forced to hack into the computers of those who denied others their rights to informational freedom and take control.

For every idiotic hypocritical organization like the CCC or the Dispatchers on the Internet, there are helpful organizations and web sites too. Chief among these has been the American Red Cross, who has done a fine job with the relief efforts. News web sites for CNN, MSNBC and others were accepting pictures of the victims sent in by their families for posting, but they have recently stopped this practice. It is unclear exactly why these sites gave up on helping with the search, but it undoubtedly has to do with fear of computer attacks from hacktivists. To their credit, New York Post continues to accept emailed pictures.

The New York PostÕs web site has not recently been downed by hackers, but I would caution the IT staff at the New York Post to scan every picture that comes in with the most updated anti-virus program they have, move the PC that receives the emailed pictures off of their corporate network and update all of their networkÕs client PCs with the latest operating system updates if they have not already done so. This may seem like a lot of work to those of you on the IT staff, but it is your job to keep the companyÕs computers up and running. Do it for your country as a show of patriotism, or do it for the overtime (you self-absorbed mercenary). Either way, these actions will save your butt soon enough.

The IT managers and Chief Technology Officers of organizations in every nation should take these steps now to combat the coming onslaught from hackers all over the world. Now that the shock of the terrorism has worn off for most in the real world, expect to see more hacktivism hitting the cyberworld in the coming weeks . Do not underestimate the lengths that hackers will go to in bringing down your web site or even your entire company. Email virus worms like "Nimda" are just a prelude to what is to come from these geeky self-styled revolutionaries. Hackers are a morally bankrupt lot who have little shame in causing harm to the innocent for their own twisted purposes ø much like the terrorists who hit NYC and DC on September 11, 2001. <>

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