When the Yahoo! overload was announced, I’d have bet that
it would grow. I was sure that
copy-cat types would take the
idea & start hitting other sites.
I think that Yahoo! should have
blamed their problem on something
that couldn’t be coppied by
hackers & others who get their
kicks screwing things up!
Zymurgist
Dunno if it was the same people or not but E-Bay, CNN.com, and Amazon got hit yesterday. According to the news, the method of shutting down the system was pretty much just throwing so much spam at the server that it could not process normal functions. Its the same method of destruction as the others . . . watch this be two 14 year old girls in Ohio. God Bless the USA.
“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” - Seneca
My problem is with news media that
told exactly how it was done. They
often tell in detail how crimes &
bothersome acts are commited,telling
thoes so inclined how they, too can
do things that they likely never
thought of.
Carl,
Just
to
let
you
know,
it
is
not
necessary
to
hit
“enter”
at
the
end
of
a
sentence.
The
MB
does
it
for
you!
Coldfire
"You know how complex women are"
Herr Kaltfeuer:
I only just found what
the
return
key
does!
&
am
I
having
FUN!
Not only do they get press coverage, the press actually seems to convey the message that these are bright, mastermind criminals.
You don’t have to be a brillant electrical engineer to disrupt power by driving a truck into a transformer station. Likewise, you don’t have to be an Internet guru to download attack programs - it’s easy.
“Vandals” is a good description, but I’d really love if the mainstream press stopped using the term “hacker” and started using something appropriately degrading - “smurfs” would be nice - for perpetrators of these attacks.
Of course, the Net will develop defenses - and of course, the price of developing and implementing those will be transferred to the users.
Until then, somebody needs to help the media get their facts straight: Using SYN flood, Ping-of-death or other attack programs is about as sophisticated, crimewise, as derailing trains by placing big rocks on the trails. And the perpetrators of such stunts should be treated with derision, not awe.
Besides, calling the perpetrators stupid will really, really annoy them…
Worrying is the thinking man’s form of meditation.
Coldfire, I just thought I’d mention that although the board will insert soft returns automatically, some versions of some browsers won’t do that while you’re typing in the message box. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons I gave up on Netscape. It’s a total pain in the ass to type a message that goes in an endless single line and have to scroll back and forth and back and forth to read it and edit it. And when I used Netscape I always used a hard return so I could read over my messages without all that scrolling before I posted them.
As to the OP, I agree that it’s extremely stupid of the media to announce in detail how to hack websites. I wonder if any of the affected sites would have a cause of action against any of the news companies that announced how it was done, if they were affected after the announcement and it turns out they can prove that the later hackers caught on to what to do by listening to or reading the news. I know there’s first amendment rights and all, but couldn’t that be considered contributory negligence in some way? Melin - any thoughts?
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
They aren’t technically hackers nor did they take anything. They simply, for example, probably opened 100’s or thousands of connections simutaneously [sp] & requested a search on each.
They should be like MacGuyver, tell enough details to be interesting but leave out one crucial element so those watching won’t be able to make a thermonuclear device out of corn starch, push pins and a coffee cup.
Is this why my fricken ICQ won’t work???!!!
Arrgghhh! A fate worse than death!
“Universe Man - He’s got a watch with a minute hand, millenium hand and an eon hand and when they meet it’s a happy land - Powerful man, Universe Man”
-TMBG
What the news media does is nothing new. I remember years ago somebody threw a molotov cocktail at the public library, and the newspaper story included very specific details on how it was made. Idiots.
FBI to look into subject problem! Maybe that will stop these vandals.
Posting
on WebTv,
Carl
Z
y
m
u
r
g
i
s
t
!