Twitter Hackers Take Down Baidu 70
snydeq writes "The group that took down Twitter last month has apparently claimed another victim: China's largest search engine Baidu.com. Offline late Monday, Baidu.com at one point displayed an image saying 'This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army,' according to a report in the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party and other Web sites. The Iranian Cyber Army first gained notoriety with its Dec. 18 Twitter attack. Baidu's domain name records were the focus of the hack. On Monday, the company was using domain name servers belonging to HostGator, a Florida ISP, instead of the Baidu.com nameservers the company normally uses."
Alternate Associated Press Article (Score:5, Funny)
Cai Wu of The Ministry of Culture in China said, "We are impressed with preliminary reports of zero searches returning offensive materials while the Iranian Cyber Army improved the search page." Wu also pointed out that nowhere in the Tao Te Ching is a reference to Baidu made and therefore it is one of the major factors in China losing its sense of nationality and pride. Wu held up an image of Laozi [wikimedia.org] and said, "Does this happy citizen look like he needed Baidu? No. All he needed was his government's ability to protect him from himself." Wu's only criticism of the 'attack' was simply that he expressed lament "it was not a group of loyal Chinese citizens who made children friendly adjustments to the search engine." Wu showed that the static page replacing the search page loaded on average 33% faster and required no user interaction to facilitate.
The Chinese government and the Iranian government have exchanged notes on how to keep their people from finding materials and lies that erode their ability to protect the cultures and citizens of their respective countries. But with the recent cross country attacks, it appears as though a group in Iran has one-upped the Chinese and shown them the beautiful results of hacking in comparison to the oafish and ugly heavy handed government shutdowns. This means, of course, that a stark internet censorship gap exists widely between the US and China. And other world powers trail far behind Iran and China -- shining examples of the firm yet gentle hand of internet censorship. Rest assured, this reporter has an inkling that a nationalistic competition could take hold similar to the space race or peace race. If there's one sport the winter Olympics might add next, certainly it's the sport of suppressing information.
China is not sitting idly by though, as strategic and selective abortions have left 24 million men without mates [yahoo.com]. The Chinese government believes this strategy will put them in solid first for socially awkward sexually frustrated males that must argue on internet forums while coding day and night taking breaks only for World of Warcraft (the most demanding mistress of them all). An army of hackers angry at everyone else will undoubtedly arise form this group willing to stop the flow of information worldwide.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
One particularly ugly consequence that the articles does not mention is this: [factsanddetails.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Right. But instead of channeling that rage toward WoW as Eldavojohn jokinly pointed out, that collective anger can be manipulated and directed towards the enemy-of-the-day, even if it is the people themselves. You will have hordes of people, full of self-loathing due to their discord between their urges and their society, who will take out their frustrations hacking foreign governments and ratting out remain
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Marrying first cousins, at least, was commonplace throughout history. Turns out that the rate of birth defects due to having offspring with your first cousin is very low.
Sisters, not so common. I can see it happening in extreme situations, though.
Re: (Score:1)
Sisters, not so common. I can see it happening in extreme situations, though.
I can picture the sisters in my head. They are definitely trying but alas no baby.
Re: (Score:2)
This is a terrific idea, no joke.
It's inhumane as all hell, but the Chinese government is already like that.
I salute you, AC.
Ho ho ho! But seriously... (Score:5, Interesting)
Chortle. (Don't see why this was modded "interesting" rather than "funny".)
But seriously:
I'm wondering how long it would take for the Chinese authorities to notice if a similar hijack took the searchers to a site that LOOKED like the real one but:
- gave them uncensored search results
- with the links that would be blocked by the Great Firewall redirected through unblocked proxies.
Obviously launching this from anywhere INSIDE China would make the perpetrator a likely candidate for involuntary organ donation. But can you imagine the trial of someone from OUTSIDE China who was caught after perpetrating such a thing? THAT might set some interesting precedents.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not if the fake site made the equivalent query to the real site. (It could even forward the ads so the real site wouldn't lose revenue - unless the real site's software decided that the ads were mostly going to a small number of IP addresses and didn't count them as unique views.)
If it were done that way the only way the site operator would know anything was wrong is if he noticed the change in IP address distribution on the queries - or ha
Re: (Score:1)
THAT might set some interesting precedents.
Naaah [slashdot.org]... Just another knockoff of western ideas..
Re: (Score:2)
(Don't see why this was modded "interesting" rather than "funny".)
Because it is interesting, and not even to mention that a lot of humour is interesting just on the basis of why we find it funny.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Dude, I applaud your effort and wish to give you all my funny mod imaginary points (which I have 15 left)
so think of yourself as a +15 Funny man.
PS- on a serious note, I really feel disgusted by the link you sent about the gender selective abortions, I had never heard of that, thank you for that link, it makes me more aware of the oppression over there!
Iran VS China (Score:1)
Iran VS China in an contest to out censor each other?
Whoever wins, we loose!
[/joke]
!Florida, Texas. (Score:5, Informative)
For the sake of accuracy:
Hostgator moved from to Houston over 3 years ago. [bizjournals.com].
I dunno who Robert McMillan is.. but he needs to do a tiny bit updating his fact-checking database.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not an ISP either AFAIK. They claim to lease servers from ThePlanet.
Forgot to log in. :/
Re: (Score:1)
His fact-checking database was hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army.
Hackers are no longer "cool" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hackers are no longer "cool" (Score:5, Insightful)
You grew up.
Re: (Score:2)
May I suggest "Hackoles"?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Oups, I meant "Hackholes" (Hackers + Assholes).
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
How about "AssHack". It sounds like "Asshat", but it also implies that you are both an ass and a hack.
Re: (Score:2)
How about "Jhackass", in honor of Oscar Leroy?
Re:Hackers are no longer "cool" (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
As oldies say... (Score:2)
"Get off my lawn."
Re:Hackers are no longer "cool" (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was in high school, I'd read something like this and the first thing that would pop into my head would be: "cool!" Now the first thing that comes up is: "what a bunch of assholes." Has hacking* finally lost its mystique?
No, you just grew up. Welcome to having adult sensibilities.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hackers are no longer "cool" (Score:5, Insightful)
Hacking is cool. Trashing peoples stuff not so cool.
Hacking used to mean making systems do things they where never meant to do. Now it means being a hoodlum.
Would have bee "cool" (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hacking used to mean breaking into government databases, and pulling source code from software companies. Now it means building toy robots from kits and making them dance.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
When you have seen the same hack for the 1 billionth time it gets old...
This sort of thing is no longer a 'hack' but just ordinary vandalism. Much as you would marvel at the spray paint on the underside of a bridge and think 'how did they do that' but then think 'what a jerk'...
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
So you were an asshole in high school? Shocking.
Baidu stuffed up (Score:4, Funny)
It looks like their domain account credentials may have been snagged
Thats a bit embarrassing for a major search engine. What was their password? baidu123?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Some snarky admin had changed the password to "tiananmen," but since the Great Firewall censored that out, their account was actually left with a blank password...
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Makes one question why China's largest search engine isn't large enough to run their own DNS servers.
I'm one person and run my own DNS server...
Re: (Score:2)
I am sure they control their own DNS servers one way or another. This attack clearly changed the setup of their domain name at register.com to delegate it to different domain name servers. Normally you do that through an SSL connection so I assume that they got hit by a dictionary attack, possibly assisted by a loose lipped employee "All my passwords are characters from Toy Story" or some such.
Its the cyber army of Iran! (Score:2)
It's so kind of them to offer... (Score:3, Interesting)
Iranian Cyber Army? (Score:2)
Iranian Cyber Army, eh? Hacking a Chinese web site?
Looks like Mousavi's boys [youtube.com].
"took down Twitter"? Come on! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
How about, 'The attack rendered Twitter and it's API inaccessible via standard means for several hours.'
What? Someone took down Twitter?? (Score:4, Funny)
Where can I send the money?