Osama Family's Suspicious Site

Published: 10 November 2001 y., Saturday
For the price of registering a domain name, a 30-year-old Web designer from Los Angeles has bought a bizarre piece of Internet history. On Oct. 27, Christopher Curry's company, Shrimpo.com, purchased a domain name that once belonged to the Saudi Binladin Group, the international construction conglomerate owned by the family of public enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden. What makes Saudi-binladin-group.com so interesting is not just that it was once an official SBG website, but that it was registered on Sept. 11, 2000, with a pre-set expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a "whois" search of the Internet domain registry VeriSign. Having the SBG domain registration expire on the day the United States was attacked is "a hell of a coincidence," said Charles Boncelet, a University of Delaware computer and information sciences professor, who is an expert on the field of steganography -- the science of hiding information. Law enforcement is already looking into whether the Sept. 11 attackers used seemingly innocuous websites or e-mails to transmit attack information using data embedded in audio or video files. The FBI will not comment about the SBG website expiration date being used as a signal to attackers -- a signal that would mean the bin Laden family's public disavowal of their notorious 17th son, Osama, was merely a public relations ploy.
Šaltinis: wired.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

Anna virus author comes forward

A Dutch virus writer known as OnTheFly admitted Tuesday to more »

Cupid Shoots His Arrow at the Web

A slew of targeted-ad campaigns and special promotions online could make this Valentine's Day worth more than $2 billion. more »

CIA-backed venture eyes anonymity software

SOFTWARE that promises users anonymity on the Web has caught the eye of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's nonprofit venture capital company, In-Q-Tel, which said the technology can help the spy agency fulfill its mission. more »

New Wave of Layoffs and Closures Hits Israeli Internet Companies

In a rapid-fire burst of painful moves, Israeli Interent and finance companies announced a series of high-profile layoffs and shutdowns in the last few days that in some cases is causing executive heads to roll. more »

From Russia with love? Kournikova virus smashes Net

A virus posing as a photo of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova spread aggressively on Monday, as major security companies rushed to update their antivirus software to detect the fast-spreading e-mail virus. more »

search.lt news

search.lt presents newest links more »

Polish online retailers remain bullish

Over half of Polish B2C retailers are optimistic about the future of ecommerce in Poland while only 18 percent are not optimistic. more »

Patron Saint of the Internet

Coming Soon to a Computer Near You more »

Italian ‘Love Bug’ hits Euro firms

Just in time for Valentine’s, notorious virus is back more »

Court to Get Control of Sex.net

Things were looking bad enough for Stephen Michael Cohen back in November, when he lost ownership of the domain name sex.com. more »