Re: Denial of Service Attacks & the Nets

[rhiann3n wyrcat <rhiannen@gw.total-web.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

Agreed!

"Attorney General Janet Reno announces that the FBI has
launched a criminal investigation into the wave of
hacker attacks that have disrupted systems at major Web
sites."

http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?recid=1586&action=Preview&brequest=index&mstatus=0&avr=1

How Very convenient that just as most organized
'hacker' sects (2600, et al) are scrambling to
garner/gather information in self-defense due to
widespread serving/sending of injunctions concerning
DeCSS* (for simply having the code accessible via the
net), a large outbreak of 'hacker' activity starts
taking place.  The best ones who can Honestly prove who
is/are really behind the attacks (before logs get
altered or missing) are currently engaged in a head on
skirmish elsewhere.

Highly ironic timing, no?

If Disney, MGM, et al were under DoS attack, at least
possibly it could (mis?)construed that a message was
being sent in disagreement to the actions of the MPAA. 
Yahoo is an Information site.  The 'Hacker' mentality
is about Gaining access to information, not in Denying
access.  EBay, Buy.com?  C'mon, online suppliers to
cheap hardware that have Not participated in any truly
outrageous anti-freedom actions?  What hacker would
bite the hand that serves cheap computer parts?

The Missouri & Oklahoma phone systems?  Comparatively,
what major Big Brothers, er, Big Businesses operate
within those states next to say, California, New York,
or Washington?   

Where is the motive for these attacks?  What would the
'hacker' community gain from attacks on these sites? 
Why has a major group, or collection of groups, not
boasted on their abilities, claimed & proven
responsibility for the actions, nor stated the
underlying reason/cause for the attacks?  (as a side
note, I'm just waiting for some 'script kiddies' to be
ignorant enough to Attempt to state bragging rights - &
quickly become convienent scape goats - but seriously,
this took POWER, beyond most 'hax0r 31337'
capabilities.)

What 'hacker' group, sufficiently organized, skilled, &
powerful enough to create such contiguous, concentrated
distributed attacks would make back to back attacks to
multiple sites?  Such actions increase -  dramatically
- the ability to pinpoint the perpetrators.  Most
groups capable of such actions would choose much more
delectable targets, & be much more 'elegant' about it.

Again, absolutely incredible timing.

*DeCSS - decoding DVD's is *NOT* needed for copying
DVD's, hence the charges of 'pirating' due to having
the DeCSS code, as stated by the MPAA, are patently,
ludicrously false.

rhiann3n

"A country cannot be both ignorant and free." 
Thomas Jefferson

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty when the government's purposes are
beneficient. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but
without understanding." 
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis 

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------------------------------------------


"W.J. R." wrote:
> 
> [: hacktivism :]
> 
> VERY valid point...hmm. Any objections to this theory?? 
> None here!
> As an addition, today(2/8/00) Buy.com has also been hit. 
> (same style of attack...hmmm.)
> It would appear that they are making more agressive and 
> more "in the open" advances on the general public
> awareness......or something like that...
> 
> But as Dennis Miller says: "But that's just my opinion,...
> I could be wrong."
> 
> Dfused
> ______________________________________________________
[: hacktivism :]


  ->   http://internet.tao.ca   <-



for more info:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/yahoo000208.html

   
Message-ID:  <v04020a01b4c63d3e8725@[208.177.135.210]>
Date:         Tue, 8 Feb 2000 14:43:27 -0800
Sender:       State and Local Freedom of Information
Issues
              <FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
From:         Jim Warren <jwarren@WELL.COM>
Subject:      who's doing what, with which, to whom,
for why?


Let's see ...

On January 27th, Clinton said he wants to make
electronic "law enforcement" a high priority, in his
State of the Union speech.

By January 30th, the *always*-silent National Security
Agency suddenly *alleges* very publicly, that its main
computers -- that process covert communications
interceptions from around the nation and world -- had
inexplicably crashed from January 24th to the 28th.

Escalating the issue, in the first week of February,
Clinton's budget proposes to spend $240-million to
massively expand his undetectable, at-a-keystroke,
remote wiretapping facilities, to be able to secretly
snoop on any phone in the nation.
  And half of the $240-million is Defense Dept loot --
perhaps from secret NSA appropriations (after all,
wiretapping is what they *do*!).  Note that another
President thought that wiretapping his political
opponents was so important that he risked -- and lost
-- his presidency, trying to install them.

By February 7th, the world's most prominant online
information service -- Yahoo (I don't count AOL as a
service :-) -- suffers a massive attack and crashes for
hours.

By February 8th, Missouri and Oklahoma phone systems
have crashed.
It illustrates the horrors of vile cyber-terrorists,
but without
bothering "important" people in Washington or on the
East and West coasts.

Now, also on the 8th, the normally *very* reliable
mail-server at
Concentric Networks -- a large national ISP -- has been
refusing to respond for more than an hour.

What better way to "prove" the need for massively
expanded
government surveillance, and create a fenzy of support
for it?!

Suddenly crackers seem to have become far better than
any have ever been before.  But then again -- what
organization has the best computer and phone-system
crackers in the world?!  There is "No Such Agency."

--jim-the-paranoic


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