(The following are two e-mails from my cousins Dave and Mark, sons of Don and Bernice)
Don called this morning. They are can not send or receive any E-Mail at this time. He told me he even tried another service but that did not work. He also said they are OK.
Dave
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(from Mark)
Thanks for the information. I received the following message from the FBI which may explain the problem they are having with E-mail.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The following is for your information.
Thanks,
Bill Shore
Subject: NIPC Assessment 00-057
National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) Information System
Assessment (NIPC 00-057) Middle East E-mail Flooding and Denial of
Service (DoS) Attacks.
This assessment is intended to advise recipients concerning an increased
level of cyber activity against Web sites related to Israel and
pro-Palestinian organizations. Due to the credible threat of terrorist
acts in the Middle East region, and the conduct of these web attacks,
recipients should exercise increased vigilance to the possibility that
U.S. government and private sector Web sites may become potential
targets. The methods observed in the conduct of these attacks are
transitory in nature, and do not pose a threat of lasting damage to Web
sites.
The recent unrest in the Middle East appears to have been responsible
for an increase in cyber attack activity between sympathizers on both
sides of the tensions. Known targets have included Web sites operated
by the Israeli government and military as well as Web sites operated by
pro-Palestinian organizations including Hizballah and Hamas.
Numerous Web sites have been found on the Internet that contain messages
advocating cyber attack activity against both Israeli and
pro-Palestinian Web sites, and in some instances include interfaces for
launching automated e-mail flood, ping flood or other DoS attacks.
Methods of attack against Israeli Web sites include automated e-mail
floods and high volumes of coordinated requests for Web services by
pro-Palestinian sympathizers. Media sources have reported that Web
pages operated by Israel?s Foreign Ministry, the Israel Defense Force,
the Prime Minister?s Office, and the Treasury have been targeted for DoS
attacks, and some indications are that other unpublicized sites in the
..il domain have experienced similar attacks since hostilities
intensified. Some of the documented e-mail flood attacks have
reportedly involved users of U.S. free Web-based e-mail providers Yahoo!
and Hotmail.
While there are currently no indications that any specific U.S. Web
sites have been or will be targeted as a result of this activity, the
NIPC recommends that recipients of this assessment remain vigilant to
the possibility that there could be some spill-over activity and that
U.S. sites could become targeted. In recent days, the overall threat
condition for U.S. military forces in the Middle East has increased due
to new, credible threats of terrorist acts in the region. Similarly,
NIPC views the current conditions as creating the possibility for
related cyber attack activity against U.S. sites.
Information systems security professionals should be prepared to take
recommended preventative measures including, but not limited to the
following: Be prepared to take appropriate steps to limit ping flooding
at border routers. Be prepared to block source e-mail addresses in the
event of e-mail flooding. Ensure appropriate patches are installed to
operating systems to limit vulnerability to other DoS attack methods.
Please report any illegal or malicious activities to your local FBI
office or the NIPC, and to your military or civilian computer incident
response group, as appropriate. Incidents may be reported online at
www.nipc.gov/incident/cirr.htm.