Chats on hacker boards indicate an increased interest in commemorating the infamous attack by launching a variety of cyberattacks. Many of these hackers are in the Mideast, and express strong sentiments against the U.S., England, and Israel, as well as strong anti-Semitic overtones.

While these attacks are speculative at press time, they are quite possible. Many experts are theorizing another massive email attack by a successor to the Sobig-F worm which has inundated many computer users with voluminous amounts of virus infected emails. Since the current endemic worm, Sobig-F, deactivates itself on September 10, and there has been a sequential release of previous versions of the Sobig worm, starting with version “A”, there is some speculation that a more virulent and possibly more damaging version of Sobig, already nicknamed “Sobig-G” will appear on September 11. Computer security specialists are already warning all computer users to perform very frequent updating of their antivirus software, possibly hourly, to provide protection against the possible September 11 onslaught of computer viruses and worms. Many antivirus software publishers have already announced contingency plans to prepare and release more frequent than usual updates starting September 10, and continuing as long as necessary. Many of these companies are also planning for the rapid creation and release of utilities to detect and kill dangerous new viruses that may appear during this time.

In the days leading up to September 11, there has been an increasing number of probes of computer systems from unknown sources. Users are being encouraged to install or upgrade firewalls on their systems. Many new versions of antivirus software now include integral firewalls, and other firewall software is available from most software dealers, electronics stores, office supply stores, and other local outlets. “Free for personal use” firewalls are available for download, some of the popular free ones being Zone Alarm www.zonelabs.com, and Outpost, www.agnitum.com. Other firewall software products are available for download from most major software download sites, such as in the internet area of tucows.exp.net, or at www.download.com.

System administrators of corporate, government, and educational networks should be on heightened awareness for unusual network activities, and be able to promptly respond appropriately.

Users should frequently check the Microsoft security site at www.microsoft.com/security for any urgent security announcements and fixes.

Hopefully, all of these precautions will be for naught, but as we learned so painfully two years ago, we are better off being prepared and not needing the precautions, then to be unprepared and not have having them in place.

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