US officials are investigating whether the next wave of terrorist activity will be in the form of computer viruses and hackers, and they have warned states to be on the lookout.
"We are considering the possibility of increased cyber-attacks," said Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI.
The federal government has warned state officials to expect more cyber-terrorism, said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. State, federal and international authorities are investigating a coordinated computer attack that spanned three months and ended Sept. 10, and may have been a precursor to the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults, Lockyer said.
US authorities are particularly concerned with the security of government computers that affect the routing of airplanes and trains, two Bush administration officials said. The federal government is considering what security enhancements would protect computers governing transportation, the officials said.
Earlier this year, the Bush administration established a cyber-security task force that emphasized increased protection for domestic air and rail computer systems. It also seeks to safeguard US government and private-sector computer systems related to international commerce.
Lockyer said the US government lacks evidence to connect the Sept. 11 assaults with the computer attacks.
More than 140 government agencies, companies and universities worldwide were targets in the coordinated computer attacks that ended Sept. 10, Lockyer said. Most of those attacks were thwarted, he said during a hearing on California's disaster preparedness.
The attacks seem "to have been sophisticated enough to have had government or state backing to carry it out," Lockyer said.
"It doesn't appear to be the mischief of traditional hackers, even sophisticated hackers, but rather something a little bit like a government-supported effort."
Lockyer said the investigation so far has led officials to believe the attacks came from somewhere in New York or Yugoslavia.
He said he is briefed each day on the threats officials have discovered.
"We are on alert for those kinds of attacks, and we are trying to track down the perpetrators," Lockyer said.
Government computer systems may be particularly vulnerable to attacks, according to Congressional testimony released Sept. 12 from an official at the General Accounting Office. The office is the investigative arm of Congress.
The systems of 24 government agencies, including the Defense Department, are "riddled with weaknesses" that make government operations and information vulnerable to sabotage by computer hackers, said Joel Willemssen, managing director for the GAO's information technology issues.
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