Al-Qaeda sites go silent in possible cyber attack

Al-Qaeda's main Internet sites have gone silent for more than a week in
an unprecedented blackout that is most likely the result of a cyber
attack, analysts said Tuesday.

"All of them essentially went down" as of March 23, said Aaron Zelin, a
researcher at the politics department at Brandeis University.

No one has claimed credit for the blackout, which bore all the signs of
a cyber attack, analysts and former US officials said, as the forums
usually post messages announcing a temporary interruption if they close
the sites themselves.

The digital sabotage could have been carried out by any number of
governments or private hackers, said James Lewis, director of the
technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.

"There are some many potential suspects," Lewis told AFP.

The long silence at the sites suggested Al-Qaeda was having difficulty
getting service restored and was no longer as capable in the cyber
realm.

"It's not a good sign for them that they can't straighten this out more
quickly," Lewis said. "It could be seen as sign of decline."

US officials have already concluded Al-Qaeda has been steadily weakened
since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and traffic on the group's
online forums has declined in the past few years.

The number of Internet forums has declined from up to 13 in 2008 to no
more than seven before last week's blackout, Zelin said.

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