October 29,
2008: For the second year, the Hamas
office in the capital of Iran, is
sponsoring a hacking contest. Whoever makes the most spectacular attack on the
most important Israeli web sites (belonging to a government agency or one of
the major political parties), wins a prize of $2,000. Not that a lot of Moslem
hackers need much encouragement for this sort of thing. But the Islamic radical
groups have noticed that they are not getting the best hacking talent, and the
Israelis typically respond much more forcefully. It has been found, however,
that a prize, and a formal competition, tends to bring in the more skilled, if
less religiously radical, Moslem hackers.
There are a
growing number of programmers and Internet specialists in the Moslem world, but
most of them have legitimate jobs in software firms, or maintaining software
and Internet services for companies. Some are involved with Internet crime, and
a very few spend some time trying to get some Internet based terrorism going.
Currently,
many of the religious minded Moslem hackers are involved in an Internet based
war between Sunni and Shia Moslems. Although most Hamas members are Sunni, Shia
Iran is a major backer of Hamas. So it makes sense for Hamas to come up with
something to stop the Internet war between Shia and Sunni Moslems, and unite
everyone against Israel.
