Youths plotted to 'take down' the Internet claims FBI
Source: NZ Herald
L33tdawg: Marq at SNP (where this posting is from), made a very insightful and interesting comment which reads "And next we will hear reports that Pinky and Brain are attempting to take over the world... Plots to take over the Internet are being hatched everyday... the question is : Did they have the ways and means to actually carry it out... " -- I have to say, I don't think anyone could have said it better.
A group of teen and young adult computer hackers allegedly planned an international conspiracy in which they hoped to "take down the internet" on New Year's Eve, federal agents in Los Angeles said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday it has seized computers, floppy disks, CD-ROMs and other related equipment for further investigation but have not made any arrests in the United States. FBI Special Agent Matt McLaughlin said four Israeli youths were arrested in their country in connection with the alleged conspiracy.
The agent added that the FBI was contacted by Dalnet, an international provider of Internet chat rooms, last October and told that several young people using their chat rooms had disabled some of their computer systems and were discussing cyber-terrorism online. A 16-year-old Lynnwood, Washington, resident under investigation had boasted on a personal Web site that a plot to sabotage communications hardware on the Web would "take down the internet on New Year's Eve 2001." The teenager later told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published in Friday's editions that the case is overblown and based on his misguided efforts to impress his friends in cyberspace.
