ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Morning News

Ben Venzke of iDefense Discusses Cyberterrorism

Aired February 7, 2001 - 9:25 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Osama bin Laden and other Muslim extremists were allegedly using the Internet to plan terrorist activities against the U.S.. Security experts say that groups often hide encrypted messages on Web sites carrying pornographic and sports information. And because the sites get so many hits, the information is difficult to track.

Coming up in about a half hour from now, a Senate committee is set to open a hearing on threats to national security. And CIA director George Tenet is expected to address the issue.

But joining us now from Washington to talk about cyberterrorism is Ben Venzke. He is the manager of a Virginia-based security firm called iDefense.

As I understand it, Mr. Venzke, your firm is the only one that tracks intelligence use by on the Internet by these terrorist group. Is that correct?

BEN VENZKE, IDEFENSE: Yes, we're one of the only companies right now in the private sector focusing in on this area.

HARRIS: How did you find out in the first place that these terrorist groups actually use sports Web sites or pornographic Web sites to transfer information?

VENZKE: Well, in part of what we do is try to find out in advance when a group is planning attack against a company or government agency. And in the process of doing that, we've developed sources within the groups and the associates of the groups that provided us with some information that this was going on.

HARRIS: Can you explain to our viewers and us this morning exactly how this works? What is it? Is it sort of an encrypted message that's hidden in some sort of a blank text message or pictures? Is it encoded? How does it -- what does it look like when you actually see one of these messages?

VENZKE: Sure. There's -- there's really two kind of core techniques.

The one is really no different than the age-old trade craft used by intelligence agencies posting an ad in the classified section of a newspaper. It's simply a message that's posted to public bulletin board. But terrorists' cell will have some indication as to look for a message with a certain number or a certain phrase and a subject line that will tip them off when to lunch attack or what target to go after.

The other technique is a little more involved but still simply for them to do. And that involves actually encrypting a message, hiding it within a standard picture file that would be posted up on the Internet, and then posting it to a public bulletin board that tens of thousands of people are going to look at. But only, again, the terrorists' cell will know how to download that image and extract the message from the picture.

HARRIS: Is it possible even that these terrorist groups use the same sort of technique that hackers use when they perpetrate or spread these viruses that we've heard so much about lately, where someone would write a program that would actually go out on the Web and use unsuspecting computer users' computers while they're not using them and further spread these messages? Anything like that happening as well?

VENZKE: Well, not necessarily in relation to carrying out a bombing attack or planning for traditional terrorist actions.

But we have seen, since the beginning of October, traditional terrorist groups actually calling for cyber-based attacks. And even mentioning or urging the use of Love Letter and other viruses we've all become painfully aware of in the past year.

So there is certainly the risk of that happening and increasing.

HARRIS: Is there any way that, say, a business that operates a number of computers or a person who has a laptop or a desktop unit somewhere in their home, that they can actually see something or find something and then actually tip you off or tip off the government? Is there any way that can happen?

VENZKE: Well, there -- there's -- there's always that slight chance, that somebody stumbles across something. And in that case, they would want to make contact with the -- with the FBI and deal with the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

But most of what we're talking about here is the kind of thing that unless you know those exact signals, even if you would have one of these pictures on your computer, there really isn't going to be any way that you can identify if from any other picture to know that there's -- there's some kind of a hidden message there.

So but now in the case of viruses, that is something that you want to be aware of and you want to be cautious about unusual messages before opening them.

But for terrorist planning and that for communications, most likely not.

HARRIS: All right, Ben Venzke. Very interesting. Thank you much, and good luck in your work. VENZKE: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top