True Tales of the Black Hat Hackers

[Morwen]

My first thread tonight, so indulge.

The e-mail began, "Your site is under attack," and it gave Mickey Richardson two choices: "You can send us $40K by Western Union and your site will be protected not just this weekend but for the next 12 months," or, "If you choose not to pay...you will be under attack each weekend for the next 20 weeks, or until you close your doors."

What follows is the best article I've ever read about the black side of the Internet in a long, long time. Offshore but legal and legitimate online casinos based in Costa Rica are hit by DDOS attacks orchestrated from former Soviet bloc countries.

Most just buckle and figure paying $50,000 is cheaper than getting knocked offline for one day. No doubt porn sites buckle too. The bad guys have used worms and scripts to zombify 10,000 PCs. The script kiddies have grown up.

One site resists the extortion, and fights back with the help of a white hat hacker who human engineers his way back through IRC, looking for the perpetrators...


Vivid if not crisp writing, combined with an incredibly topical and vivid look into the front lines of the real Internet underground makes this my nonfiction computer journalism article of the year, for now.

 

[Tap-Out]

Do you have a link? Or was this in a local paper?

Also if you find that interesting I hightly HIGHLY recommend the book "Confessions of a Teenage Hacker".

 

[Morwen]

Do you have a link? Or was this in a local paper?

Also if you find that interesting I hightly HIGHLY recommend the book "Confessions of a Teenage Hacker".

The link is in the text, look for the underlined word.

But here:
http://www.csoonline.com/read/050105/extortion.html

 

[Tap-Out]

The link is in the text, look for the underlined word.

But here:
http://www.csoonline.com/read/050105/extortion.html

Thanks for that. I'm using Mozilla under Linux so all my links aren't underlined a-la IE. So that word just appeared as a normal work, not a link. But thanks

How have you been?

 

[Morwen]

Thanks for that. I'm using Mozilla under Linux so all my links aren't underlined a-la IE. So that word just appeared as a normal work, not a link. But thanks

How have you been?

Oh, I've got Mozilla under Gatenstein, so I just assumed.

I tried Linux once but motherfucker, where are the games?

I'm good, thanks, yooooourself?

 

[Tap-Out]

Oh, I've got Mozilla under Gatenstein, so I just assumed.

I tried Linux once but motherfucker, where are the games?

I'm good, thanks, yooooourself?

Lots more games now. Go to the Ubuntu Linux site to download and/or order some free cd's. They have a live cd, pop it in, runs completely off the cd, and does have a good number of games. Worth another shot

If you're still in the world of Windows I also highly recommend "Slim Browser". Very nice, very handy. Don't have a link for it atm though. Download.com has it easy to find

I've been better. Just a million negative curve balls being thrown my way and it's just piling up on me.

 

[Morwen]

Lots more games now. Go to the Ubuntu Linux site to download and/or order some free cd's. They have a live cd, pop it in, runs completely off the cd, and does have a good number of games. Worth another shot

If you're still in the world of Windows I also highly recommend "Slim Browser". Very nice, very handy. Don't have a link for it atm though. Download.com has it easy to find

I've been better. Just a million negative curve balls being thrown my way and it's just piling up on me.

I've done work for the PC game industry, and I know what a good PC game is. Linux ain't got no good PC games.

- Warcraft III
- Sims II
- Doom III
- Half Life 2
-Worlds of Warcraft
and on and on.

Apple gets maybe 10% of the good PC games.

Linux gets maybe 1%, depending on John Carmack's mood.

 

[Tap-Out]

I've done work for the PC game industry, and I know what a good PC game is. Linux ain't got no good PC games.

- Warcraft III
- Sims II
- Doom III
- Half Life 2
-Worlds of Warcraft
and on and on.

Apple gets maybe 10% of the good PC games.

Linux gets maybe 1%, depending on John Carmack's mood.

Ahhh.. the classic power gamer. I agree Linux woulden't be for you. Dual booting defiantly, but not as a sole OS.

Sexy and a computer geek. Be still my beating heart

 

[Azwed]

Saveing to read later got to go to bed soon.

 

[Guru]

That article is more than a year old. I wonder, with the extra sophistication of hackers and the expanded number of exploits identified, how much worse it is today?

 

[Morwen]

That article is more than a year old. I wonder, with the extra sophistication of hackers and the expanded number of exploits identified, how much worse it is today?

Yup, but I never saw it until it ended up on Slashdot. Viva la people.

 

[Morwen]

Ahhh.. the classic power gamer. I agree Linux woulden't be for you. Dual booting defiantly, but not as a sole OS.

Sexy and a computer geek. Be still my beating heart

So I would use the Linux boot for...?

I'm not a programmer. Linux, and I have tried it, is not really that interesting, after the "Hey shit, it works!" phase. It's like, "Hey look! A shittier graphics program than Photoshop! A crappier word processor than Word! These games suck! It's Tetris, but it won't even fucking load!"

I'm not down on Linux. But fuck, make the thing understandable and usable to ordinary people. It's nowhere near that despite those insipid articles to the contrary.

 

[Tap-Out]

So I would use the Linux boot for...?

I'm not a programmer. Linux, and I have tried it, is not really that interesting, after the "Hey shit, it works!" phase. It's like, "Hey look! A shittier graphics program than Photoshop! A crappier word processor than Word! These games suck! It's Tetris, but it won't even fucking load!"

I'm not down on Linux. But fuck, make the thing understandable and usable to ordinary people. It's nowhere near that despite those insipid articles to the contrary.

It is, sadly, very true that Linux on the desktop isn't good enough for prime time on the desktop.It's come a long long way, but not there yet.

As for why you should use it, a lot of people would now start ranting and raving about security, virii, spyware, etc, etc, but bugger that 'cause I'm sure you've heard it a million times before. You've given it a shot, and didn't like it, so don't bother installing

 

[Morwen]

It is, sadly, very true that Linux on the desktop isn't good enough for prime time on the desktop.It's come a long long way, but not there yet.

As for why you should use it, a lot of people would now start ranting and raving about security, virii, spyware, etc, etc, but bugger that 'cause I'm sure you've heard it a million times before. You've given it a shot, and didn't like it, so don't bother installing

If I was that worried about security I'd get a Mac. But I don't run wi-fi and I think I'm fairly diligent about my processes and my spyware. And the universe of software on Wintel is the drug for the common Alicia.