'Jihad' online is just hype

Security experts have downplayed media reports that an 'electronic jihad' aimed at Israeli websites will start on Thursday.

The reports came after the Russian news service RIA Novosti published comments made by Eugene Kaspersky, a noted antivirus researcher, saying that several websites had posted a call to arms for mass web defacements to occur on 26 August.

Security researchers stressed that calls for internet attacks have become a staple of extremist sites and usually amount to little.

Jose Nazario, attack researcher for security company Arbor Networks, said: "There has been a lot of occasions of people saying, 'hey, let's have a party and deface a lot of websites', and not much has come from it."

According to Nazario, security researchers frequently see increased online activity when attack preparations have started. There are no indications that such preparations are happening now, Nazario said Wednesday. "We honestly haven't heard anything," he said. "There have been no precursors to a large-scale attack."

Kaspersky's own company played down the portrayal of the statements of its founder on Wednesday. Antivirus-software maker Kaspersky Labs said the reports focused on what was otherwise "brief comments made yesterday at a press conference which was dedicated to cybercrime and the problems of spam."

The antivirus researcher's rebuttal to the articles and criticism from security experts appeared on VirusList.com, a site owned by Kaspersky Labs.

"We don't know who is behind these statements" calling for attack, Kaspersky said in the statement on VirusList.com. He stressed that the trustworthiness of the digital call to arms could not be established. "It's not the first time the term 'electronic jihad' has been used. We've seen this before, with the focus being on sending racist emails, and defacing and hacking Israeli websites."

Robert Lemos writes for News.com