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DATE=2/11/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=INTERNET HACKING PREVENTION (L-O) NUMBER=259084 BYLINE=ALISHA RYU DATELINE=LOS ANGELES CONTENT= Intro: Alarmed by this week's massive hacker attacks on some of the world's leading Web sites, many companies in the United States are racing to strengthen computer security, installing new software and training special technicians. But as V-O-A's Alisha Ryu reports from our West Coast Bureau, even these measures may not be enough to stop future attacks. Text: After a three-day hacker spree that briefly downed such popular Web sites as Yahoo!, CNN, e-Bay, and E-Trade, companies across the United States say they are taking steps to make sure their computer systems are never compromised again. Yahoo!, whose site was shut down by hackers for several hours on Monday, says it has installed special filters that will monitor Internet traffic and weed out suspicious requests. The Internet service provider company, Prodigy, says it is training up to 100 technicians to detect unusual subscriber activities. But Internet security experts are not convinced that companies alone can stop attacks on electronic commerce. Ira Winkler is president of Internet Security Advisors Group. // First Winkler Act // Being a victim of this attack does not mean they have poor security. It just means they are a visible target. What is enabling these attacks is the poor security of hundreds of systems around the Internet. The computers that are being used to attack, I guess they are being referred to as "zombie" computers, are the ones demonstrating poor administration. // End Act // Experts believe hackers are using these "zombie" computers, usually unsecured computers belonging to companies or universities, to secretly install their attack software. The hackers then instruct these computers to bombard a Web site with service requests and overwhelm its capacity. Mr. Winkler says any unsecure computer can potentially become a "zombie" computer. He says preventing cyber attacks must be a cooperative effort. // Second Winkler Act // If people who maintain those systems could have better intrusion detection, better proactive security measures and watch for misuse of their networks, they could prevent these attacks. // End Act // Space Rogue, a research scientist at the Internet security company At Stake-dot-com, agrees taking preventive measures is the best way to fight hacking. But he worries that message may not reach everyone. // Rogue Act // It is going to be interesting to see how these preventive measures are going to be included as we go forward. Nobody wants a slow Web page. When we start applying these filters and routers and start figuring out where things are going, all that stuff takes time to do. If one company puts them in and they are one second slower but their competitor doesn't put them in and their pages are not slower, the consumer is going to go to the faster person. So, it is hard to say what is going to happen here. // End Act // Both experts believe as long as there are unsecured computers in the world, company Web sites will remain vulnerable to hackers for the foreseeable future. (Signed) NEB/PT 11-Feb-2000 19:50 PM EDT (12-Feb-2000 0050 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .