i'm not quite sure that the FBI outtage was simply the coincidental result of a bunch of people checking out the files. an outtage like that used to occur regularly a while ago. then there emerged concerted efforts at DoSs by using one or a few computers simultaneously.
What's been happening lately are DDoS--they're distrubted across many 'fusers and, ostensibly, in this case they were hijacked 'fusers--hijacked with the use of trojan horses. in it is a program installed on the 'fuser which was supposed to have made the 'fuser accessible remotely. it responded to a remote command to make the falsified requests. hackers go for uni networked fusers and always on connections [cable modem and DSLs]
that's what they were saying.
also, i seem to recall that the fbi.gov site was also defaced. i can't seem to find it in my files--
2.23.00 Feds Behind Recent Massive Web Hacking/Fwd
During the unprecedented massive blitz of hack-attacks which brought some of the world's most active websites to an utter standstill in the second week of February through implementation of DDoS (distributed denial of service) tactics, NewsHawk made a basic "call" on the situation. To whit: we postulated that the hack-attacks, implemented on a scale and to an extent previously unheard-of, were most likely carried out by spooky cyber-goon squads in the employ of our beloved federal government.
Since I am by no stretch of anyone's imagination what could even remotely be considered a computer geek or wirehead, nor am I particularly strong on researching issues which don't directly concern me, I made my call on the scene, solicited and published opinions from our mailing list on the situation and pretty much left it at that.
Well, it turns out I wasn't the ONLY one who was more than a little bit suspicious that feds may have had more than a little bit to do with the hacking blitz.
Indeed, MacAddict columnist Rich Pizor outdid us by a mile and actually researched the background of the whole situation: in particular with respect to certain proposals for an "Internet Gestapo" kind of deal known as the Federal Investigation and Detection Network, or FIDNet, which the Clinton gang had just recently been advancing as a means of "patrolling" cyberspace. The deafening chorus of either boos, hisses or just plain silence from all quarters which greeted the Clintonistas' Brave New World-style proposal caused a retreat of sorts, but according to Pizor's view, most likely only a temporary one. Indeed, one just long enough for these gangstas and goons to lick their wounds and come up with a PLAN which would make everyone fall slavishly in line with their malignant (as usual) machinations and devious schemes. Namely; the initiation of the overwhelming hack-attack tidal wave and blitzkrieg which devastated the Web a couple of weeks ago.
It's an old Machiavellian game. Create a previously non-existent problem, and then let everyone cry and beg for you to provide a solution.
Sheesh. And you thought WE get out a limb with these kooky conspiracy scenarios.
But seriously, we think Pizor is in fact ONE HUNDRED PERCENT correct in his suppositions.
And what's REALLY interesting to us at NewsHawk, considering what we've put up with lately in terms of "mysteriously" missing or diverted emails and related malicious harassment, is the notice tacked on the end of Pizor's article, (which we've reprinted in full below): "We were unable to bring you this column at it's expected time and place in the Monday newsletter because our email server was having problems and our web site may have been under attack. COINCIDENCE?????"
Uh... "coincidence? No f**king WAY! As Charlie Chan used to say: "too many coincidence, no longer a coincidence."
Get the picture?
=-=-=-=
Trigger Man by Rich Pizor
mon feb.23
A prevailing stereotype about the Internet is that it's full of crackpots hawking hair-brained conspiracy theories to anyone who will listen. Any responsible media outlet should consider it their job to present a solid, professional appearance in an attempt to countermand that stereotype. I'm therefore pleased to bring you a crackpot conspiracy theory of my own, which revealed itself to me when I connected the dots while reviewing the recent spate of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Before we proceed any further, I must indulge in one act of contrition. I didn't want to go here. Really, I didn't. But companies and websites that no one's ever heard of are blaming every little outage or security flaw on the omni-present shadow of hackers, crackers, cyberterrorists and iSaboteurs. I feel then that it is my right -- nay, my solemn duty -- to correct the balance and proffer speculation (since that's all that any of this really is) as to what might have really happened. Our legal department also wants me to point out that neither myself, MacAddict.Com, or Imagine Media are necessarily making any formal allegations. That being said...
In order to understand the elegance of what's going on here, we need to go back in time to the middle of last year. It all started with what the Clinton administration obviously assumed would be an innocuous and welcome announcement: Clinton had pushed forth a proposal for something called FIDNet, or the Federal Investigation and Detection Network. A controversial proposal to say the least, but the plan drew particular fire in late January as EPIC (among others) loudly denounced the plan, saying that it would lead to nothing more than an Orwellian information state.
So Clinton (not uncharacteristically) backed down...just days before the first DDoS attack incapacitated Yahoo for a day, along with twelve other major sites over the course of the next week -- seven of which have come forth with reports. Suddenly everything became the fault of crackers. A man in Virginia was even inspired to launch his own DoS attack on the Virginia DMV website (he only used his own computer, so there was no Distributed nature to it).
Certainly coincidental timing for a President who's trying to get an unreceptive public to go along with his draconian cybersecurity plan. Especially given Janet Reno's recent testimony before Congress regarding the need for formalized laws on Internet security, citing those very attacks as her justification.
But it gets better. Two days after the first attack, the FBI held a press conference in which they vowed to catch the perpetrator(s) but also admitted that they didn't have any idea, at that time, who did it. "A 15-year-old kid could launch these attacks," said the Bureau's Ron Dick (with a name like that it's no wonder he wound up in the FBI). Only a few days later, the news bubbles out that they're hot on the trail of a suspect named "mafiaboy" -- surprise surprise, a 15-year-old kid, conveniently in Canada and out of the Feds' reach without cooperation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Most in the hacking community scoff at the thought that "mafiaboy" could be involved in anything more than a copycat role. He's widely considered to be a "script kiddie" -- an amateur cracker seeking fame through his exploits using tools downloaded off the Internet. So it's puzzling that the Feds would want him that badly; the name "Lee Harvey Oswald" keeps coming to mind. It's also unclear why they want to find Mixter -- an anonymous German hacker who may have authored one or more of the tools that may have been involved -- when he has publicly stated that he didn't do it, and the tools he may have authored were never released publicly except with the intention of studying DDoS attacks and how to counter them. The only other lead that's been made public is an anonymous email sent to Attrition.org (a site that archives hacked Web pages) that even the site's webmaster isn't taking too seriously.
Am I coming right out and saying that the government we elected is behind all of this? Not directly. I have a hard time seeing most elected officials even being able to use a word processor, let alone pull off something like this. But you have to admit, the timing of all of these events is mighty convenient -- and while it's unlikely that they could have done it themselves, all it takes is money and connections to arrange for someone to pull a trigger.
It calls to mind Judd Hirsch's line from Independence Day: "Well you didn't *really* think they paid $500 for a hammer did you?"
NOTE: We were unable to bring you this column at it's excepted time and place in the Monday newsletter because our email server was having problems and our web site may have been under attack. COINCIDENCE?????
Rich Pizor is the pseudonym of the man who claims to be Online Content Editor for MacAddict.com -- if he told you any more than that, he'd have to kill you. When he isn't hatching looney theories like this one, Rich types inflammatory things in chat rooms in the hopes of gaining immortality in an Echelon log.
ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM C-NoSpam: You do not have consent to spam me. X-Attrition: Attrition is only good when forced. http://www.attrition.org Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 15:45:57 -0700 Reply-To: mea culpa <jericho at DIMENSIONAL.COM> Sender: ISN Mailing List <ISN at SECURITYFOCUS.COM>