Former military cyber-warfare commander predicts revelations of CIA's brutality and duplicity will spark denial-of-service attacks, site defacements The release Tuesday of the U.S. Senate’s report that excoriated the Central Intelligence Agency for torturing suspected terrorists will result in retaliation by cyber-hacktivist groups, a security expert predicted today. “I expect there will be some sort of retribution,” said Tom Chapman, director of cyber operations at Edgewave, a San Diego-based security firm. A former U.S. Navy cyber-warfare commander, Chapman joined Edgewave in September and leads the company’s threat intelligence unit. “We’ll see denial-of-service attacks, we’ll see attempted hacks and we’ll see site defacements,” said Chapman. “This is something we’ll be keeping an eye on.” Chapman was referring to the news from the U.S. Senate’s Intelligence Committee, which released a 500-page summary of its years-long investigation into CIA interrogation practices in the aftermath of the September 2001 attacks against New York and Washington D.C. The report blasted the agency for torturing Al Qaeda suspects, not on moral grounds, but on practicalities: It concluded that the repeated torture of terrorist suspects produced little or no information of value. The report also charged that the CIA lied to both Congress and the White House about what information it had gleaned from those interrogations. Although Anonymous may be among the best-known hacktivist groups, collectives can easily coalesce around a cause. In the past, hacktivists have taken on U.S. banks, defended the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by hijacking Microsoft’s Twitter account, and embarrassed Western technology companies like Symantec by stealing source code. Hacktivists’ favored tactic is to launch crude denial-of-service attacks, often with the help of thousands of sympathizers, to overwhelm targeted websites so that they are inaccessible to the public. In 2012, for instance, Anonymous recruited thousands to conduct attacks in protest of the shuttering of the Megaupload file-sharing site. The Senate’s report can be downloaded from the committee’s website (download 62GB PDF). Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe