Al-Qaeda plot to bring down UK internet

[Mark Gobell]

From the Sunday Times

March 11, 2007

David Leppard

Al-Qaeda plot to bring down UK internet

SCOTLAND YARD has uncovered evidence that Al-Qaeda has been plotting to bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange.

In a series of raids, detectives have recovered computer files revealing that terrorist suspects had targeted a high-security internet “hub” in London.

The facility, in Docklands, houses the channel through which almost every bit of information on the internet passes in or out of Britain.

The suspects, who were arrested, had targeted the headquarters of Telehouse Europe, which houses Europe’s biggest “web hotel”, containing dozens of “servers” , the boxes which contain the information that makes up the web.

Security experts say the plot against Britain’s internet “hub” reflects the constantly changing threat from Al-Qaeda and related Islamic extremist groups.

Last year MI5 uncovered intelligence which suggested that Islamic terrorist suspects had carried out reconnaissance of the huge Bacton complex of gas terminals on the Norfolk coast. The threat led to the deployment of armed guards around the plant.

A senior Whitehall security official said the internet plotters appeared to be planning to infiltrate the “hub”, possibly to blow it up from the inside, according to evidence on a computer hard drive seized in raids on the homes of terror suspects in southern England last year.

“The Telehouse facility was the subject of intense reconnaissance. The evidence suggests that it was one of a range of options considered by the suspects,” the official said.

The discovery led Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, to set up the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure last month. It is a special MI5 unit to help to protect “infrastructure” sites from terrorist attacks, such as telecommunications, the internet and key utilities such as oil, gas installations and nuclear power stations.

“Without these services, the UK could suffer serious consequences, including severe economic damage, grave social disruption, or even large-scale loss of life,” the MI5 website says.

The Telehouse hub is nicknamed CTU after the counter-terrorist headquarters in the American television series 24. It is designed to provide back-up power for all Britain’s vital network services in the event of a large-scale terrorist attack elsewhere.

Yesterday the company confirmed that it was required to go on a “heightened state of alert” last year, when security officials say they uncovered the plot. It declined to discuss the threat but said it wanted to reassure its customers that it was doing everything possible to protect itself from terrorism.

Robert Harris, its technical services director, said: “Major co-location companies such as Telehouse are strategically important organisations at the heart of the internet.

“Security and business continuity are critically important. Our industry remains as alert as possible to any threat, terrorist or otherwise, and we are in regular communication with the appropriate authorities.

“The climate in 2006 required a heightened state of alert. In 2007 we remain in this heightened state of awareness to any such security threat and are in regular dialogue with the authorities.”

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These comments have been posted in response to the ridiculous piece of scare mongering "journalism". If they had one iota of knowledge about redundancy in the internet this would never have got printed. But then the intended audience to be scared probably has no idea . . .

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So a few web-sites might go down. Let's hope that the real critical services like the Police National Computer can't be knocked out to easily!

Colin Soames, Londonistan,

What an uninformed and ridiculous news post. Data centers are not only bomb proof but have extremely tight security. As for your understanding and reporting on how the Internet works, well it leaves a lot to be desired.

Tim, London,

The UK is dangerously reliant on TH. Whilst the major international carriers do have connectivity points outside of London, it would still cause absolute havoc for most of the countries connectivy (Home/SME ISPs), which mainly terminates in TH.

In response to Ian Kemmish's comment about a nameserver, this would not really cause any issues, one "comprimised" name server wouldnt need to be at LINX and could be placed any where in the world, Injecting false routes onto LINX would cause more issues, but even then this can be mitigated.

In regards to security at TH, whilst there is tight security on persons getting into the building, its still, in my opinion, extremely easy to take in any incindery device. If a terrorist was able to make a 4u case (say 20inch deep by 19 inch wide by 7 inch tall), and to place multiple devices arround TH this could in theroy total the building. Granted its extremley impracticatal to screen every device entering a data centre, but its still food for though.

WM, Reading, Berks

Europe’s biggest “web hotel”, containing dozens of “servers”
LMAO very informed .. sounds like we are safe.. !!

Jon, London, happy

Possible one of today's less well informed reports. Perhaps somebody should tell Mr Leppard about Wikipedia. Telehouse is one of several UK 'hubs' that ensure there is no single point of failure. It houses probably tens of thousands of 'servers'. As befits such an important establishment security is tight, and terrorist threats have been taken into acount in the designs of the building. This didn't prevent catastrophe in 1997, however, when a security guard purportedly flicked the main power switch and turned Telehouse off.

Peter Strong, London,

The Internet doesn't have a heart. That's the whole point of packet switching. Any company that doesn't have backups, or which chooses to put its backups in the same place as everyone else's, deserves all it gets. But that's a different issue.

And, if I were a terrorist with access to LINX, that very last thing I'd place there to cause maximum disruption would be a bomb. A compormised nameserver perhaps, but not a bomb....


Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Something as important as the main internet connection's from the UK to the outside world should be protected as well as the bank of england.even it's location should not be known to anyone that does not need to know. Also there should be a secondry system that will 'kick in' if the main system is disrupted.

brian willmer, chiang mai, thailand

[Mark Gobell]

That Sunday Times garbage was delivered on 11.3.2007 on the 3rd anniversary of Madrid.

11.3.7 was the 119th day of the counter-terrorism media briefing given by the Foreign Office about the Al Q nuclear threat on 13.11.6, exactly 3 months and 3 days after the liquid bomb * of 10.8.6

Interestingly the Sunday Times piece also regurgitates the threat apparently uncovered by MI5 last year to the Bacton gas terminal.

The BBC and others all cited a News of the World source for the Bacton gas terminal threat, published on 7.1.7, whereas the original story was reported in the East Anglian Daily Press on 19.11.6 - exactly 1 month and 19 days before the News of the World, BBC et al.

We were reassured by the Sunday Telegraph that the Al Q threat to the UK was the worst since 9/11, in a story they published on 25.2.7, exactly 1 month and 19 days after the News of the World article of 7.1.7

The original EDP story about threats to energy terminals published on 19.11 (2006) was, uncannily, the 11th month and 9th day of the Buncefield "accident" on 11.12.2005

[London Mick]

So this is how Blair and his masters intend to get rid of the internet!
More "Al-CIAda lies.
Have a look at this video....it will cheer you up.

http://www.filmstripinternational.com/

[Serge]

I thought the BBC farce was hilarious, but this one really is something.

It is simply not possible to carry out a total shutdown of the internet in the UK, unless the person who really holds the key chooses to do so.

Now, all of a sudden, hackers and phreakers are going to be seen as AQ operatives?.

The persons responsible for lies like this really must be beyond any description of clueless.

[ZUCO]

It's true that people are trying to bring down the internet, but not just in Britain, the whole of the worldwide web in fact. And it has nothing to do with Al 'CIAda. This story is from Feb 6th so it's not exactly breaking news either.

[johndoe]

th shut down of the internet is impossible. the network system is desgined so that breakages in connections do not matter, they are simply rerouted.

[ZUCO]

There are 13 core servers where information is stored, addresses etc. Your right that the internet won't go down completely, but you wouldnt be able to search for websites, you would have to know the website's ip address to get to it