Re: Ehippies new DoS tools and information

[Lorax Agrivane <lorax@dojo.tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]



On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, Bronc Buster wrote:

> DoS attacks are more like the carpet bombing used in Vietnam. Sure you may
> hit the target, but then again, you hit everyone else around it,
> regardless if they are innocent or not.

	Let me start off by agreeing with B.B. in that DoS is quite usually
	*lame*, and entirely the realm of Kiddies.  If you know what you are
	doing, and can target a specific machine / netblock that is responsible
	for Evil, more power to you.  It should be no suprise that there are 
	still machines out there with both echo and chargen listening to the
	world... but DoS accompolishes very, very little.  

	What I am suprised at is how little attention the backbone providers
	have been recieving over all of this.  Several of the affected sites
	sit in the *same machine room*.  (FGC's Manhatten POP, which is a
	lovely place to spend a weekend in, across the street from a fantastic
	market.)  

> Not to mention, DoS attacks are a federal crime and could land you in jail
> for quite a while.

	Have no doubt that the "authorities" will put you in chains if they
	can.  Downtime is embarassing to the corporation, and the corporation
	is the poltical power in many places these days.  With hyper-inflated
	stock prices, and "cost" of DoS and defacing being counted in the
	millions and many thousands of dollars respectivly,  it's well 
	within the parameters required to get the budget for an extended 
	case/lawsuit/just messing up your existance.  

> Right now a team I am on is working closely with human rights groups and 
> hacker groups on a set of hacktivism applications to be released this
> summer at DefCon. It will show that Hacktivism is a real way to use the
> net for to blend activism and technology in a posive way, while helping
> people at the same time.

	That's cool to hear.  I look forward to learning more about the 
	projects.

	A good example in recent history... iComm.ca and madmagic arranged
	to get connectivity and access for folks at the University of East
	Timore.  Seriously negative stuff went down there as you know, but
	there was another conduit for them to communicate with the world
	because of that blending of hackers and activists... 
	
> Hacktivism shold be about positive actions and bringing issues to light,
> not about punishing people or companies over views you may not agree with.

	The best way for people to spend their life energy around hacktivism
	is to do just that, educate those who do not know, refine our own
	knowledge and skills so that we can be more effective in delivering
	that message of positive action. 

---
Lorax
Nabgure Sevraqyl Unpxgvivfz Yvfg-Jbexre.


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