The move towards military action against Iraq raises the possibility of increased electronic attacks by activists or hacking groups sympathetic to President Saddam Hussein or opposed to any use of force.
One hacker, interviewed by email for this article, warns that western businesses should brace themselves for ‘suicide cyberattacks’ against their websites in the event of a war. He defined such an attack as one in which the hacker sets out to cause maximum damage with no regard for being detected and caught. The Arab hacker who issued this stark warning belongs to a group calling itself the Iron Guards, which attacked Israeli government and business websites at the height of the Arab-Israeli cyberwar.
