Tag Archives: ddos-attacks

Shellshock Being Used to Build a DDoS Botnet to launch DDoS attacks

The advisory alerts enterprises to a DDoS botnet-building operation by attackers taking advantage of the Shellshock Bash bug in Linux-based, Mac OS X and Cygwin systems. Failure to take action can result in a vulnerable system being used to propagate a DDoS botnet, launch DDoS attacks, exfiltrate confidential data and run programs on behalf of attackers. “PLXsert has observed the DDoS botnet-building operation of an attacker using Shellshock to gain access to and control Linux-based systems.” said Stuart Scholly, senior vice president and general manager, Security Business Unit, Akamai. “We are sharing this information to help enterprises patch their systems to prevent unauthorised access and use by this botnet. Akamai customers have multiple options to minimise the risk of a breach and to mitigate DDoS attacks enabled by this vulnerability.” Attackers breach vulnerable systems Malicious actors are using the Bash bug vulnerability, which is reportedly present in GNU Bash versions 1.03 through 4.3, to download and execute payloads on victim machines. These payloads include executable files and script files written in programming languages such as Perl, Python or PHP. The dropped files are capable of launching DDoS attacks, stealing sensitive information and moving laterally across internal networks to breach other systems. In addition, malicious attackers have implemented backdoor functionality to gain unrestricted access to victim machines in the future. DDoS botnet uses Internet Relay Chat IRC for communication PLXsert recorded an actual IRC conversation of a botnet-building operation that uses the Shellshock vulnerability to add new bots to a botnet. The observed botnet involved 695 bots. IRC channels #p and #x were used to issue commands, and new bots were requested to join channel #new. Web applications at high risk Web applications that use the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) method to serve dynamic content are at risk for the Bash bug. It is important to check internal and external web servers for this type of application and others that may potentially pass input to Bash. The Shellshock vulnerability has also been exploited in OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell), a set of computer programs that provides encrypted communication sessions. In this case the vulnerability is exploited after authentication, which lowers the risk of exploitation but should still be considered high risk. Enterprises need to patch (and re-patch) vulnerable hosts Enterprises must update and patch vulnerable hosts as soon as possible. Some of the earlier patches were insufficient. It is important to obtain and apply the latest patch from the operating system developer. Fully patched, remote exploitation attempts of this type will be unsuccessful. PLXsert anticipates further infestation and the expansion of this DDoS botnet. Get the Shellshock DDoS Botnet Threat Advisory to learn more In the Bash bug advisory, PLXsert shares its analysis and details, including: Vulnerable Bash versions DDoS building capabilities of binary payloads Types of DDoS attacks IRC conversation from within the DDoS botnet How to mitigate this vulnerability DDoS mitigation Source: http://www.australiansecuritymagazine.com.au/2014/11/akamai-observes-shellshock-used-build-ddos-botnet/

White House Says Unclassified Network Hit In Cyberattack

Mitigation efforts have caused temporary outages and loss of connectivity for some staff, but no computers have been damaged, official says. An unclassified portion of the White House network has been hit with what appears to be an ongoing cyberattack. Efforts to mitigate the threat have resulted in temporary system outages and loss of network connectivity for some users, a National Security Council spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. The attacks have not caused any damage to White House computers or systems, though some elements of the unclassified network have been impacted, the official said. “The temporary outages and loss of connectivity for our users is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks,” the spokeswoman stressed in an emailed statement to Dark Reading. The Executive Office of the President (EOP) routinely receives alerts about potential cyberthreats against White House systems and discovered the current attack while following through on one such alert. White House cyber security staff is still assessing the severity of the attack and ways to mitigate it, the statement added. “Certainly a variety of actors find our networks attractive targets and seek access to sensitive government information.” An internal White House memo to staff members obtained by The Huffington Post noted that EOP component heads and senior directors at the NSC have put in place several interim measures to help employees on high priority tasks to continue work as usual. Some of the system outages and connectivity issues resulting from the attack have been resolved while others are in the process of being remediated, the memo said. The White House has not released any details on the nature of the attack or the person or group that might be responsible for it. But some media reports citing unnamed White House sources have claimed that the attacks have been going on for at least two weeks. This isn’t the first time that the White House has been the target of a cyberattack. In 2012, malicious attackers used a spear phishing attack to gain access to a non-classified system used by the White House Military Office. In 2009, the main White House website was one of the targets of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack campaign that also targeted the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and several other government networks. A similar DDoS attack temporarily took down the whitehouse.gov website back in 2001. Cyberattacks against White House networks have invariably tended to be portrayed as significantly hostile actions against the US by unfriendly nations. Many have tended to blame China in particular for such attacks though the actual proof for such claims has been somewhat tenuous. News of the latest attack is sure to fuel similar speculation especially because it comes just one day after security vendor FireEye’s new report on APT28, a Russian hacker collective that is believed responsible for numerous attacks against government and other websites. The group is believed engaged in widespread espionage activities and appears to be sponsored by the Russian government, according to FireEye. Security analysts themselves have in the past cautioned against reading too much into reports of cyberattacks against the White House in the absence of any real information on the nature or scope of the attacks. “Government networks the world over are on the front lines of a digital conflict, so it’s no surprise the White House has been targeted, as it presents a very rich target,” said Chris Boyd, malware intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes Lab in emailed comments. Though no White House systems appear to have been compromised, the attack serves as a reminder of how geopolitical tensions are expressed these days, he said. John Pescatore, director of emerging security threats at the SANS Institute said reports of the attacks needs to be viewed in a slightly broader context given all that has been happening recently with White House security. “Given what seems to be a decrease in rigor around physical protection of the White House, I think we do have to be concerned about cyber security protection around White Houses computer systems,” Pescatore said. “I have no insight into what attacks actually occurred, but the reports make it sound like suspicious activity was detected and dealt with quickly. Those are good things. But that is what the first reports of the fence jumper said as well.” Source: http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/white-house-says-unclassified-network-hit-in-cyberattack/d/d-id/1317060?_mc=RSS_DR_EDT

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White House Says Unclassified Network Hit In Cyberattack

City of Phoenix Computers Under DDoS Attack

Police computer communication went down for almost an hour An attack targeting the computer systems of the public services in Phoenix, Arizona, affected the city’s activity for a period of almost an hour. Police work was also impacted, as officers were not able to search for information about suspects from the computers in their cars. According to information from inside sources, the attack had been carried out for days in a row, culminating with a disruption of the system on Saturday. No sensitive information was stolen There is no information about the identity of the attackers or their purpose, but Randell Smith, City CISO (Chief Information Security Officer), said in an interview for Fox 10 that he believed the goal to be gaining access to the network and obtaining as much personally identifiable information (PII) as possible; this is generally used for financial gains. No other possible reason was given by the CISO, who told the TV station that the defense tactics had held and no data could be exfiltrated. Over the weekend, the city’s servers received a heavy DDoS blow resulting in a 45-minute outage, and the public safety systems could not send information to police officers requesting details about names, license plates, and checking criminal records. Radio is the main communication system, which means that officers can still deliver details from the field to their colleagues. Important to note is that the entire computer system of the public service is affected, and the cybercriminals do not focus on a particular department. The city of Phoenix contacted the FBI along with technology partners to help put an end to the attacks. DDoS attack services can be rented At the moment, the City of Phoenix website is available intermittently until midnight Tuesday, for maintenance reasons and probably for analyzing any clues the crooks may have left behind. The current situation was uncovered by Fox 10, who managed to obtain internal letters containing references to the attack. In one of them, a deputy city manager wrote that the city could be under a coordinated denial of service (DoS) attack, given its intensity and persistence. Although it may appear a difficult task to pull, DSoS attacks can be easily carried out, even by those with little technical knowledge. The criminal market provides such services that can be sustained for a week, for as little as $100 / €79. Depending on the level of protection of the target system and the size of the attack, the price goes up. Still, for strong servers or websites with better protection in place, the cost is about $500 / €394 for a week-long incident. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/City-of-Phoenix-Computers-Under-DDoS-Attack-463286.shtml

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City of Phoenix Computers Under DDoS Attack

#OpOrwahHammad – DDoS attack on Israeli Government Websites for Killing 14-Year-Old Orwah Hammad

Online hacktivist collective Anonymous has knocked 43 Israeli government websites offline in response to the killing of 14-year-old Palestinian-American boy Orwah Hammed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Conducted under the banner #OpOrwahHammad, the cyber-attacks knocked some of the main Israeli government websites offline using distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Among the websites affected were those of the IDF, Office of the Prime Minister, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel Securities Authority , Ministry of Industry and Trade, State of Israel Mail and Israeli Immigration. Anonymous said in a statement published to coincide with the attacks: #?OpOrwahHammad has officially kicked-off now, and Israeli government websites are feeling it. Anonymous is targeting Israeli government websites in protest of the killing of young Orwah Hammad and many Palestinians alike. The world will not stand by such brutality. Israeli Government beware for you should have Expected Us. The hacktivist group also published a list of 43 websites it claims were knocked offline during the attack. At the time of writing, some of the websites on the list remain offline (such as the Ministry of Defence website) while others are back online (including the IDF website). Orwah Hammad The cyber-attacks were carried out in the name of Hammad, a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the head in the village of Silwad, north of Ramallah, on 24 October. The shooting of the Palestinian-American teenager led the US State Department to call for a “speedy and transparent investigation ” into the death. An Israeli army spokesman told Reuters Israeli forces “managed to prevent an attack when they encountered a Palestinian man hurling a molotov cocktail at them on the main road next to Silwad. They opened fire and they confirmed a hit”. The shooting happened during clashes in Arab areas in and around Jerusalem, in which several other people were injured. Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-shuts-down-israeli-government-websites-retaliation-killing-14-year-old-orwah-hammad-1471874

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#OpOrwahHammad – DDoS attack on Israeli Government Websites for Killing 14-Year-Old Orwah Hammad

DDoS attack on Ukraine election commission website

Ukraine’s election commission website has been attacked by hackers on the eve of the country’s parliamentary polls. According to Ukrainian officials, the website came under cyber attack on Saturday, just one day before Ukraine is set to hold general elections. “There is a DDoS attack on the commission’s site,” said the Ukrainian government information security service. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack slows down or disables a website by flooding it with communications requests. The security service labeled the attack as “predictable” and went on to say that the website’s design insures that it could not be completely taken down and that it is currently completely functional. “If a site runs slowly, that doesn’t mean it has been destroyed by hackers,” the statement added. As for reports that the site was in control of hackers, Markiyan Lubkivskyy, an adviser to the Ukrainian Security Service said, “Any statements regarding the alleged successful unauthorized intrusions into the cyber space of the Central Election Commission or the elements of the elections systems do not correspond to the facts. Hackers are controlling nothing.” Ukraine’s snap elections were called in August as President Petro Poroshenko came under pressure to purge the parliament of lawmakers allegedly tied to the overthrown government of Viktor Yanukovych. As many as 36 million Ukrainians are eligible to take part in the parliamentary elections. The leaders of the breakaway eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk have refused to allow the polls to be held in territories under their control, with a population of almost three million. Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests. Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/25/383623/ukraines-election-website-hacked/

India accounts for 26% of top DDoS traffic

Majority of DDoS traffic in 2014 originated from India, says a new research from Symantec. Of the top 50 countries that witnessed the highest volume of originating DDoS traffic, India accounted for 26 percent of all DDoS traffic, followed by the USA with 17 percent, the research said. The results prove India has a high number of bot infected machines and a low adoption rate of filtering of spoofed packets, but may not imply that people behind the attacks are located in India because DDoS attacks are often orchestrated remotely. However, the study indicates that India is emerging as a hotbed to launch these attacks, potentially because of the low cyber security awareness, lack of adequate security practices and infrastructure, said Tarun Kaura, director, Technology Sales at Symantec India. The year 2014 saw an increase in the compromise of Linux servers, including those from cloud providers. These high bandwidth servers are then used as part of a botnet to perform DDoS attacks. The so-called “Booter” services can be hired for as little as INR 300 ($5 USD) to perform DDoS attacks for a few minutes against any target. Longer attacks can be bought for larger prices. They also offer monthly subscription services, often used by gamers to take down competitors. As the most attacked sector globally, the gaming industry experiences nearly 46 percent of attacks, followed by the software and media sectors While it’s not happening on a broad scale now, it’s likely we’ll see an increase in DDoS attacks originating from mobile and IoT devices in the future, Symantec said. DDoS attacks make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. A Domain Name Server (DNS) amplification attack is a popular form of DDoS, which floods a publically available target system with DNS response traffic. Symantec’s research indicates that DNS amplification attacks have increased by 183 percent from January to August 2014. Motivations behind DDoS Attacks include hacking and financial blackmail with the threat of taking the business offline personal grudge. It also acts as a diversion technique to distract IT security response teams while a targeted attack is conducted. Source: http://www.infotechlead.com/2014/10/24/india-accounts-26-top-ddos-traffic-symantec-26196

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India accounts for 26% of top DDoS traffic

More than 70 Hong Kong government websites ‘under DDoS attack from Anonymous hackers’

Over 70 government websites have been targeted this month by cyberattacks believed to have been directed by hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous, a brand adopted by activists and hackers around the world. Commerce secretary Greg So Kam-leung told lawmakers that no information had been stolen or altered from the official websites, which had been intermittently inaccessible after surges of requests to access them. By Wednesday, eight men and three women had been arrested by police in connection with the cyberattacks, on suspicion of accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent, So said. “Attacks launched by the hacker group partly originated from Hong Kong, and partly from other regions outside Hong Kong,” he said. “Since the group can be joined by any netizen, [the attack] could be originated from all over the world and it is hard to find out their nationalities.” Internet users identifying themselves as Anonymous hackers issued a warning to the government and police force on October 2 after tear gas was fired at pro-democracy demonstrators in the city. A number of official sites were made inaccessible on October 3 by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. During such attacks, website infrastructure is overwhelmed by a huge number of requests to access the site, ultimately making the site inaccessible. The attacks can also slow down website functionality. But So said the cyberattacks had not impacted significantly on the government’s online services, and emphasised that security had not been compromised. The website of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has also been the target of sustained cyberattacks in recent weeks, coinciding with a blockade of its offices in Tseung Kwan O by pro-Beijing protesters. No group has claimed responsibility for those cyberattacks, which followed similar attempts to make the Apple Daily website inaccessible in June during the Occupy Central electoral reform referendum. An attempt to block access to the referendum’s online polling system was described by one internet security expert as “the most sophisticated ever”. So mentioned that some individual local websites had also come under attack, but such actions had not had a “significant impact on the city’s economic activities”. Police are still investigating those cases, he said. Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1622171/more-70-hong-kong-government-websites-under-attack-anonymous-hackers

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More than 70 Hong Kong government websites ‘under DDoS attack from Anonymous hackers’

International Middle East Media Center back on-line after DDoS Attack

The website of the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) is back online after the Palestinian news service, under the auspices of the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People, was forced off-line by a DoS attack and apparently let down by Hosting provider Bluehost. IMEMC and other new media came under increased attack during the Gaza war, while mainstream media were bleeding viewers, listeners and readers to new, alternative and independent news services. A several hundred percent increase in readers of news about the Gaza war may, ultimately, have prompted the UK parliament’s recognition of Palestine. The IMEMC website is under constant attack of one sort or the other, but these attacks increased significantly since the Gaza war, said the editor-in-chief Saed Bannoura to nsnbc. IMEMC’s website ultimately succumbed to a DoS attack on October 14, after the end of armed hostilities, but against the backdrop of the Swedish recognition of Palestine and the UK parliament’s yes vote to the recognition of Palestine on October 13. IMEMC, nsnbc, and a number of other new, independent or alternative media experienced a marked increase for the Palestine – Israel discourse. While nsnbc only registered a minor increase in daily readers, it noticed a marked increase in the number of read articles pertaining Palestine, Israel, and the related international discourse. IMEMC, which specifically covers Palestine and the Palestinian – Israeli discourse, experienced a significant increase in its number of readers and read articles. Saed Bannoura noted that IMEMC also experienced an increased interest in IMEMC’s Facebook page and Twitter account, adding, however, that there was a particular increase in interest for the IMEMC website. Bannoura said: “Our readership increased from two million hits per month to ten million hits per month … We have seen more and more reprints of our articles, and also, Abby Martin of Russia Today, was repeatedly quoting the IMEMC website, our statistics and our reports in her TV coverage” Saed Bannoura noted that IMEMC and other independent media often have people on the ground where major mainstream media are merely repeating the reports from establishment news agencies. It is noteworthy that the IMEMC website succumbed to the DoS attack on October 14, one day after the UK Parliament voted in favor of the recognition of Palestine and only two days after nsnbc published an article that documented an unprecedented level of harassment of alternative media, including IMEMC, nsnbc, Voltairenet, New Eastern Outlook, Land Destroyer Report, Infowars, Drudge Report and others. Mainstream media like the BBC, CNN and other were increasingly forced to adjust their coverage. This ”adjustment” and the flight away from the mainstream to alternatives is likely to have been a significant contributing factor to the landslide in public opinion in the UK, that led to the recognition of Palestine by the UK parliament. Speaking about the decades-long vilification of Palestinians and the misrepresentation of the Palestinian – Israeli discourse in Blockbuster Hollywood movies and mainstream media, Saed Bannoura said: “Well, it’s an unfortunate reality that most of the international media agencies are largely corporate owned and line-up with corporate lobbies. Therefore their coverage is poor to none, regarding Palestine issues, especially when it comes to Palestinian rights”. Another aspect of the involvement of strong corporate and government interest in media coverage is that alternative, internet-based media, are dependent on Hosting providers who often are in direct or indirect corporate relationship with, or dependent on business with major corporations which are known for their cooperation with intelligence agencies. One example is the well-documented cooperation between Google, Microsoft, Apple, and the U.S.’ National Security Agency. IMEMC’s now previous Hosting service, Bluehost, said Saed Bannoura, let IMEMC down when it was subjected to the DoS attack instead of providing any actionable help. Bannoura stressed, “that is their job, that is what we are paying them for”. It is noteworthy that Bluehost has a partnership with SiteLock, which also was involved in a harassment case pertaining nsnbc and others. October 18, nsnbc attempted to contact Bluehost via chat and phone. A sustained attempt to acquire the contact details of a media spokesperson or anyone who could speak on behalf of Bluehost failed. Also repeated direct calls to its violation of terms of service department were consistently answered by an answering machine, saying, “I’m sorry, that’s not a valid extension. Thank you for calling”. IMEMC has migrated the website to another hosting provider for now. Editor-in-chief Saed Bannoura agrees that alternative, new, and independent media could and maybe ought to form some kind of alliance with regard to negotiating with safe and ethical hosting service providers. The IMEMC website is on-line again, but the new media are likely to remain vulnerable as long as they don’t stand united against censorship and harassment. Source: http://www.imemc.org/article/69429

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International Middle East Media Center back on-line after DDoS Attack

How Russian hackers used Microsoft PowerPoint files to hack NATO computers

The ‘Patch Tuesday’ fixes included a patch for a vulnerability that a Russian Hacker team was using to target NATO. These attacks target high-profile organizations so you don’t have much of a reason to be worried (but please update!). So, no need to panic, this is just an interesting scenario that sheds some light on how computers can be compromised. The Russian team is called ‘Sandstorm Team’ and has been targeting organizations in Russia, the European Union, and United States since 2009. This attack used malicious PowerPoint documents. The Sandstorm Team crafted these PowerPoint files to install a malware called ‘Black Energy’ when opened. The malware installed is ‘bot-based’ and uses a plugin architecture that can be used for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, credential theft, or spam. Then, in a ‘spear-fishing’ attack, they sent these files to the employees of NATO and different telecom and energy companies. A ‘spear-fishing’ attack is when the attacker pretends to be a trustworthy source to trick the victim into opening malicious files, in this case, PowerPoint files which installed malware. Normally, you don’t want to run exe files that you don’t trust as they execute unrestricted code. But a PowerPoint file should just open a PowerPoint, so it’s safe, right? Wrong. You should never open files that are from questionable sources. This particular attack used a vulnerability in OLE that allowed the attacker to execute any command, which was used to install the malware through the mere opening of the PowerPoint file. OLE stands for Object Linking and Embedding, and is used in cases such as linking an Excel report in a PowerPoint document. This way, when the Excel report is updated, so is the data that shows up in the PowerPoint. It is a very useful feature, but the attackers found a vulnerability that lets them use it to install malware. This vulnerability in the OLE has now been patched. This was a ‘zero-day,’ which are attacks where the attacker finds a vulnerability first and be able to exploit it before anyone has any knowledge about it, let alone has a chance to fix it. These types of attacks happen all the time, and the only way to fix one is to detect the malware exploiting it and then patch the vulnerability. To help ensure the safety of your own system, don’t click on anything you don’t trust, and install updates as soon as possible. Source: http://www.winbeta.org/news/how-russian-hackers-used-microsoft-powerpoint-files-hack-nato-computers

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How Russian hackers used Microsoft PowerPoint files to hack NATO computers

Researcher makes the case for DDOS attacks

When you start with the premise that capitalism is illegitimate it’s easy to dismiss other people’s property rights. To some people, a political mission matters more than anything, including your rights. Such people (the Bolsheviks come to mind) have caused a great deal of damage and suffering throughout history, especially in the last 100 years or so. Now they’re taking their mission online. You better not get in their way. Molly Sauter, a doctoral student at the Berkman Center at Harvard (“exploring cyberspace, sharing its study & pioneering its development”), has a paper calling the use of DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks a legitimate form of activism and protest. This can’t go unchallenged. Sauter notes the severe penalties for DDOS attacks under “…Title 18, Section 1030 (a)(5) of the US Code, otherwise known as the CFAA” (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). This section is short enough that I may as well quote it here verbatim: (5)(A) [Whoever] knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer; (B) intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, recklessly causes damage; or (C) intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, causes damage and loss. There are other problems with the CFAA with respect to some legitimate security research and whether it technically falls afoul of the act, but that’s not the issue here. Sauter goes on in some detail with the penalties under Federal law for violating this act and, no argument here, they are extreme and excessive. You can easily end up with many years in prison. This is, in fact, a problem generally true of Federal law, the number of crimes under which has grown insanely in the last 30 or so years, with the penalties growing proportionately. For an informed and intelligent rant on the problem I recommend Three Felonies a Day by Harvey Silverglate. Back to hacktivist DDOS attacks. She cites cases of DDOS attacks committed against Koch Industries, Paypal, the Church of Scientology and Lufthansa Airlines, some of these by the hacktivists who call themselves Anonymous. In the US cases of the attacks against Koch, Paypal and the Church, the attackers received prison time and large fines and restitution payments. In the Lufthansa case, in a German court, the attacker was sentenced to pay a fine or serve 90 days in jail; that sentence was overturned on appeal. The court ruled that “…the online demonstration did not constitute a show of force but was intended to influence public opinion.” This is the sort of progressive opinion, dismissive of property rights, that Sauter regrets is not happening here in the US. She notes, and this makes sense to me, that the draconian penalties in the CFAA induce guilty pleas from defendants, preventing the opportunity for a Lufthansa-like precedent. This is part and parcel of the same outrageous growth of Federal criminal law I mentioned earlier; you’ll find the same incentive to plead guilty, even if you’re just flat-out innocent, all over the US Code. I would join Sauter in calling for some sanity in the sentencing in the CFAA, but I part ways with her argument that political motives are a mitigating, even excusing factor. Sauter’s logic rises from a foundation of anti-capitalism: …it would appear that the online space is being or has already been abdicated to a capitalist-commercial governance structure, which happily merges the interests of corporate capitalism with those of the post-9/11 security state while eliding democratic values of political participation and protest, all in the name of ‘stability.’ Once you determine that capitalism is illegitimate, respect for other people’s property rights is no longer a problem. Fortunately, the law protects people against the likes of Anonymous and other anti-capitalist heroes of the far left. I would not have known or cared about Sauter’s article had it not been for a favorable link to it by Bruce Schneier. Schneier is a Fellow at the Berkman Center. Progressives and other leftists who think DDOS, i.e. impeding the business of a person or entity with whom you disagree in order to make a political point, should consider the shoe on the other foot. If I disagree with Schneier’s positions is it cool for me to crash his web site or those of other organizations with which he is affiliated, such as the Berkman Center, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and BT (formerly British Telecom)? I could apply the same principle to anti-abortion protesters impeding access to a clinic. I’m disappointed with Schneier for implying with his link that it’s legitimate to engage in DDOS attacks for political purposes. It’s worth repeating that Sauter has a point about the CFAA, particularly with respect to the sentences. It does need to be reformed — along with a large chunk of other Federal law. The point of these laws is supposed to be to protect people against the offenses of others, not to protect the offender. Source: http://www.zdnet.com/researcher-makes-the-case-for-ddos-attacks-7000034560/

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Researcher makes the case for DDOS attacks