DATE=2/10/2000 TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP TITLE=COORDINATED INTERNET ATTACK NUMBER=6-11676 BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: Editorial pages across the country are reacting angrily to a series of computerized attacks this week on various internet companies that do business on the World Wide Web. The web is the interactive part of the internet that includes thousands of places where companies offer a growing number of goods and services to people contacting them via computer. Several of these so-called "e"-businesses have been temporarily put out of operation by computer vandals, called "hackers," who flood the computers and systems of the businesses with extraneous messages, overloading them and closing them down. We get a sampling now from ___________ in today's Opinion Roundup. TEXT: Within the past few days, at least seven of the nation's largest internet businesses, called "e"- businesses, have been shut down by so-called hacker attacks (EDS: deliberate interference by computer experts). One of the best known of these businesses was Yahoo!, which was hit Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, Amazon-dot-com, which sells books, audio tapes, and other entertainment items, was hit. Wednesday, the computer vandals went after two of the largest stock trading companies, Z-D-Net-dot-com and E-TRADE-dot-com. U-S Attorney General Janet Reno says the Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to identify the culprits, who will be prosecuted to the fullest. Meanwhile, the nation's press, which also has become involved in the internet by posting electronic versions of the daily newspapers, has plenty to say. We begin with the national daily, U-S-A Today, published in the Washington D-C suburbs, which calls what happened "Cyber-vandalism:" VOICE: this week's wave of assaults against top Internet Web sites points up an ugly fact: In the cyberworld as in the physical one, a few crooks can spoil things for everyone else. ... Attorney General Janet Reno promised that federal agencies would do all they could to catch and prosecute those involved. It won't be easy. Any geek (computer expert) with a computer and a modem can access the internet and spread misery from anywhere around the world. ... Surveys ... have found that most online companies lack clear security policies and don't worry about the safety of the sites they link up with. The price of increased vigilance will mean billions of dollars diverted to security instead of development. But in a domain as public as the Internet, where a handful of spoilers seek to exploit the weakest links, everyone needs to keep their guard up, or everyone will lose out. TEXT: The Philadelphia Inquirer is equally upset, as it notes: VOICE: In one of the most vicious and pointless gang- ups in hacker (computer user) history, cyber-vandals figured out a way to paralyze these much-frequented sites. Their success helped propel the Dow [Jones stock average] into a 250-plus point free-fall yesterday [2/09]. This e-prank was pretty easy to do. And there may be no defense. It was just another reminder that security and reliability remain serious issues on the ol' (old) Info Highway. TEXT: Striking a similar theme, the Honolulu Star Bulletin of Hawaii says "stronger security measures are needed to stabilize Internet sites." VOICE: A computer data assault immobilized Yahoo!, the internet's most popular search engine and information portal, for nearly three hours on Monday. The next day, hackers attacked e-Bay, Amazon-dot-com, Buy-dot-com, and CNN-dot-com, raising questions about the security of other sites on the World Wide Web. The attacks caused much inconvenience for internet users. While the financial effects were negligible, it showed the potential for significant damage on the new e-commerce battlefield. ... The hackers were believed to include a group in Portugal and a teenager in Virginia. TEXT: The San Francisco Chronicle is not amused either: VOICE: The charmingly precocious renegade image that many people have of computer vandals has got to go. ... These cyber-thugs can invade private sites and cause the loss of millions of dollars to businesses and individuals. Yet they enjoy a certain stature among others of their techno-ilk ... TEXT: In Southern California, The Los Angeles Times is distressed, but also frustrated that so many internet web companies ignored earlier warnings of just such an eventuality. VOICE: The F-B-I's National Infrastructure Protection Center warned last December that programs capable of disrupting large web sites were readily available and said it had developed software to identify and block them. ... companies will certainly listen more closely now. TEXT: New England's premier daily, The Boston Globe, is distressed at just how weak the system appears in light of these latest attacks. VOICE: The internet is an extraordinary tool for knowledge and commerce, but its reliability is open to question after the hacking attacks this week. Yahoo! And the other companies have been put on notice that they must protect their sites better against the hackers' electronic barrage if the Internet is to become a rock-solid communications medium like the telephone network. Attorney General ... Reno was right to give this crime top priority. Finding the hackers will be difficult, however, since they use relay computers to bombard the sites with thousands of messages, thus effectively shutting them down. ...The internet is decentralized enough so that other sites were available to offer similar services when yahoo! And the others were down. ... But the major web sites are now on notice that they must be adequately protected if e-commerce is to reach its full potential. NEB/ANG/JP 10-Feb-2000 17:26 PM EDT (10-Feb-2000 2226 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .