Cyber-civil disobedience

Inside the Electronic Disturbance Theater's battle with the Pentagon

By Winn Schwartau
Network World, 01/11/99

The battle between the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) and the Pentagon is a potential watershed event: The first time - that we know of - that the U.S. military launched a cyber counter-offensive against people within the United States.

On September 9, 1998, the EDT launched a denial of service program called FloodNet against a Pentagon Web site. "Floodnet causes persistent re-searching of the targeted site's local search engine every nine seconds," says EDT member Ricardo Dominguez. Essentially, it chews up CPU time and resources.

Dominguez and the EDT call their cyber-protest performance art on the Internet, meant to focus on the plight of the Zapatistas, a rebel group that supports the rights of Indians in Chiapas, Mexico. Because the U.S. supports the Mexican government in opposing the Zapatistas, the EDT considers the Pentagon a legitimate target.

According to highly placed Pentagon sources, the Floodnet assault was pre-announced by the EDT so the Pentagon was able to prepare for it. Its response was orchestrated by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which has experience with both defensive and offensive cyber-tools.

Once the attack began, the Pentagon launched a denial of service attack of its own. Requests from the EDT browsers were redirected to a Java applet called 'hostileapplet,' which Dominguez says crashed the browsers. The applet fired a "series of rapidly appearing Java coffee cups across the bottom of the browser screen coupled with the phrase 'ACK.' FloodNet froze," he says.

After the Pentagon's response, the EDT said it would consider a lawsuit against the government. The group is now in discussion with a Seattle based attorney who himself wants to join the EDT, according to Dominguez. They have promised to announce their legal intentions soon.

On January 1, the group made good on another promise, to release FloodNet to the public. This is a potentially disturbing event that could further empower push-button hackers.

As for the EDT? "We will continue to develop tools, tactics and theory for the development of HTML activism and the larger umbrella of hactivism," Dominguez says. These methods are to be used by communities suffering under armed aggression who normally have "no means and are without voice."

"Remember," Dominguez says, "FloodNet was not created by hackers or terrorists, but by artists and activists who wanted to create a simple point and click tool that would bring civil disobedience to the HTML community."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's counter-attack raises questions regarding whether the U.S. Government and the military should be launching cyber-attacks within the U.S., even as a defense measure. Posse Comitatus, an 1878 law, bans the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. Whether the law applies to cyberspace is the subject of heated debate within Washington, and insiders suggest current laws will have to be rewritten to find a new place for the military in civilian-cyber-defense.