Tinternet hackers

jpod

jpod

jpod

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By the way I have no idea what I am talking about. But I was reading this:

http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-polic...ping-lizard-squad-run-hack-for-hire-websites/

And the court complaint is here:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/file/900826/download

And I for one agree if guilty the hackers did a bad thing to innocent folk and should be punished so there is a deterrent.

But then I was thinking - isn't this just another example of the rubbish and irresponsible way software and hardware is designed so it is easily exploitable and causes harm to users.

TLDR
Isn't there just a really simple way of way of preventing DOS attacks? Like designing the tinternet better in the first place?
 
touch said:
Nope.
A "DOS" attack is nothing clever, it's just using a normal function of a network, like loading a web page or something, but done multiple times in rapid succession.
Spread all those page loads across thousands of compromised computers worldwide and there's no way you could possibly tell the difference between a malicious bit of code loading a page and a normal user loading a page.
Click to expand...

Understood. But my point is suggesting that if the PC hardware, their OS's and the tinternet servers had a system of preventing it in the first place......we no longer have the problem.
 
Steampunk said:
You still have to deal with incoming requests - even if it's just to throw them away. That will always happen at some point along the route where some hardware has to filter out the incoming packets. Throw enough packets at something, and it will grind to a halt or swamp the bandwidth available.

If I organised for a thousand people to each post you a thousand letters, you'd still have to sort through it all to find out which ones you wanted to keep, you'd still have to take the letters from the postman, you'd still have to empty your letterbox and then take the rubbish to the dump or put it in the bin.
Click to expand...

Okay in olden days I would write my letter, seal it with wax and my ring (no sniggering please), a ring which was issued to me, and some underling would run off and deliver it for a cabbage. The recipient can check it is genuine and whether it has been tampered with. So a tech version must me possible to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Couldn't humans just have to do a squiggle to access some sites to prove they are human and not bots?

Like I said I have no idea what I am going on about - but I am interested in why the process is so flawed that it can be grifted.
 
/\ A master of analogy.

I understand it. Lets face it there are some Pro explanations here.

I believe it should be designed better. Steampunk says it can't so I am disappointed we didn't solve that this time round just so I could say told you so. NVM

The fact that teenage boys can create a web page and code to knock off the service of legitimate businesses; and in a revision install a stop button to essentially extort businesses is pathognomic of a fragile masterpiece, the internet.

By the way, it is well worth having a read of the court transcript posted above, the FBI Special Agent noted that one of the 'hackers' or whatever you want to call them had a balance of $99,000. That is a lot of Red Bull for a teenager.
 
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