"Issues of World War III" Survey

In answer to last week's question, "What should be done about computer viruses and hacking crimes on the Internet?", some 80% of defined responses chose the option of denying Communist Bloc nations access to the Internet; the remainder chose individual defenses such as anti-virus software and firewall programs. One response came as an "other," but didn't offer any proposal (the e-mail was blank). No one seemed to favor international control over the Web. There was only one comment this time:

• "[Exclude Communists from the Net], especially if the hacking comes from Communist countries, like Red China and Russia."

Factual Background:
Computer "viruses" and "worms" are small, malicious bits of software written deliberately for the sake of breaching security on other computers and causing damage. These programs are typically designed to multiply and spread themselves to as many other computers as possible. When a virus or worm manages to "infect" a computer — by riding as an e-mail attachment, for example, or hiding on a web page until an unsuspecting user clicks on a booby-trapped link — the program inserts itself into the victim's computer and promptly starts using the e-mail software or network connections to spread to other computers. The virus may meanwhile be damaging the infected computer to varying degrees. And all this takes place in the background, usually without the victim even realizing anything is happening.

"Hacking" is the process of breaking past security barriers to gain access to a computer or network. At the other end of the connection to the Internet (from anywhere in the world), a criminal programmer is surreptitiously stealing information from the victim's computer or even planting files onto the targeted machine. The "hacker's" tools may include virus-like programs known as "trojans," which sneak onto computers and lower their defenses to let the hacker get through. Often hacking attacks involve massive, coordinated bombardment of a web site by multiple computers, overloading the hosting computer and causing the site to "crash," or stop functioning.

Both types of attacks (viruses and hacking) have increased enormously in recent years. No authoritative statistics are kept (and many companies and other victims don't even report them), but most experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of viruses, if not millions, attack computers each year; hundreds of thousands of hacking assaults also take place. Some are meant to cause damage randomly, but a growing number of attacks are now targeted against particular companies or political (mostly conservative) organizations. Some of the attacks are connected with organized crime, involving extortion where the victim must pay up or have his web service crash. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now lost each year to computer attacks, and the figure is rising.

The question is, from where are these attacks originating? Again, there are only a range of estimates, no official figures. But increasingly, certain foreign countries are being mentioned as the leading generators of viruses and hacking: (Soviet) Russia, Eastern Europe (especially Bulgaria as of late), Communist China, and Communist Egypt. Many hacking attacks come from the "Russian Mafia," which, as pointed out by Soviet KGB defector Major Anatoliy Golitsyn, is nothing more than a front name for KGB operations. In some cases, Western authorities have traced and found the hackers in the Communist Bloc, but the Communist regimes in Russia, China, and elsewhere consistently ignore requests for prosecution and instead protect the hackers. A 2002 intelligence report by the CIA revealed that the hacking from China can sometimes be proven to originate from the regime's military and secret police themselves, and that the Beijing regime is actually mobilizing for warfare against America via the Internet. So it is the Communist governments that are coordinating the hacking.

Even much of the targeted hacking that originates in the US comes from the Communists, mostly organized by a shadowy group called the "Internet Liberation Front" (ILF). An overtly Marxist network that boldly proclaims its support of hard-line Communist Parties throughout the world, the ILF is responsible for various acts of defacing conservative web sites, damaging corporate computer networks, and stealing credit card records from companies to finance their terror campaign (using people's private credit card accounts).

Relevant Torah Principles:
Under the Noahide Law of establishing justice, it is the obligation of the government to protect its citizens and go to war against enemies who threaten law and order, whether foreign regimes, organized crime, or terrorist groups.

Analysis:
The Internet has been made available anywhere in the world, and all nations are allowed to connect to it. So while Communist regimes and their agents have full access to cause mayhem on the Web, Internet service providers have little recourse but to restrict and interfere with the activities of normal, legitimate users. It has become difficult or impossible for many businesses to do business, or individuals and groups to express political viewpoints, in an environment where filters and other barriers are blocking the ability to send large amounts of e-mail, for example.

But it would not be difficult for authorities to force Internet service providers and other computers on the Web to block access from all Communist Bloc countries, as well as from services or computers that provide indirect access for the Communists. And even domestic e-terrorism could be drastically cut down if Marxist and leftist web sites would be banned, with severe penalties for service providers who allow such activity on their servers.

While such measures would not completely stop the attacks, they would reduce them drastically to manageable levels. Ultimately, the attacks won't end until the attackers do — that is, when the Communists themselves have been utterly annihilated, as will happen soon with the coming of the Messiah and the Redemption.

And now for this week's survey question:

Only one answer per e-mail address will be accepted; only e-mail addresses on our subscription list are eligible. Please send your input by Tuesday, November 15, 2005, 12pm PST.

THE HALL OF SHAME…
Have Some Chabad Shluchim Betrayed Their Rebbe?

This week's example:

…AND THE HALL OF FAME
Some Chabad Shluchim Are Helping the JAHG-USA Campaign

This week's example:
Rabbi Fishel Oster, Oholei Torah Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY

Rabbi Oster, also a teacher at a Lubavitch yeshiva, was presented our Proclamation on June 8th by a JAHG-USA volunteer. But unlike Yaacov Osdoba, Rabbi Oster neither made excuses nor stalled. He signed it immediately, recognizing that the entire Proclamation was correct and important for all to heed. If Rabbi Oster can endorse such a "no-brainer" campaign, why can't Yaacov Osdoba, whose teaching position is no different from Rabbi Oster's? Some people simply have a greater sense of duty than others.

What do you think about Jewish leadership on PLO defunding? Send us your comments at newsletter@noahide.com.

For a complete listing of all rabbis who have received our proclamation, the up-to-date status of their responses, and how you can get help the campaign, visit ATTAC Report at http://www.attacreport.com/plo/.

Letters to the Editor

• (An anti-semitic response to the question of whether US aid to the PLO should continue):
"Help the PLO destroy Israel! The USA gave over 12 billion in aid to Israel last year, not one dime of which can be accounted for!... parasitic Jews! Our country should cast you off of our back...!" — DM.

Our response: Not surprisingly, this pro-PLO individual's facts are wrong. The US currently gives Israel about $3 billion in annual foreign aid, not $12 billion (!), most of which is used to fund the socialism that weakens Israel's economy — while providing the US State Department leverage to intimidate Israelis into restraint rather than annihilating the PLO.

And at the same time, the US provides more than that to the Arab governments of the Middle East, primarily to the Communist regimes in Egypt ($2 billion per year), Algeria, Syria, and Yemen, which are sworn enemies of Israel and supporters of the PLO. And, of course, there is the matter of direct funding to the PLO, which may be as high as $1 billion per year (though US government agencies are understandably reluctant to admit how large the total is). So the bill to support the enemies of America and Israel is billions of dollars higher each year than the aid to Israel itself.

But this demented person's letter is an important reminder of what sort of company "refusenik" rabbis place themselves in when they avoid endorsing the PLO-defunding campaign. Do they really wish to be this leftist's ally?

Send your letter to the editor to newsletter@noahide.com.

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