'Anonymous' WikiLeaks Proponents Not So Anonymous 390
Giovane Moura writes "For a number of days the websites of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and others are attacked by a group of WikiLeaks supporters (hacktivists). Although the group calls itself 'Anonymous,' researchers at the DACS group of the University of Twente (UT), the Netherlands, discovered that these hacktivists are easy traceable (PDF), and therefore anything but anonymous. The LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) software, which is used by the hacktivists, was analyzed by UT researchers, who concluded that the attacks generated by this tool are relatively simple and unveil the identity of the attacker. If hacktivists use this tool directly from their own machines, instead of via anonymization networks such as Tor, the Internet address of the attacker is included in every Internet message being transmitted. In the tools no sophisticated techniques are used, such as IP-spoofing, in which the source address of others is used, or reflected attacks, in which attacks go via third party systems.
Re:Using TOR? (Score:2, Interesting)
That was probably the intention of these so-called "researchers" (right, not CIA shills at all...) when they suggested such an alternative.
Obvious research (Score:5, Interesting)
Since the average internet troll can't IP spoof (he is limited to a /32 block) it's fairly obvious he will reveal his location. No need to use the source for that, Luke.
The idea behind a voluntary botnet is that the damage done by each participant does light damage, and is not effectively ddosing, while at the same time the aggregate damage is effective in delivering the desired mob justice. The legal effectiveness of that defense might vary.
Raw sockets and Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Raw sockets and Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
4chan was actually hit by a reflected SYN attack last year, which forced AT&T to black hole its domain [slashdot.org] for several hours. Apparently there are still some ISP's, particularly in Eastern Bloc countries, that don't bother to filter spoofed packets leaving their networks.
Re:Using TOR? (Score:4, Interesting)
Finally an analogy that at least made me laugh. It's not much more accurate than the average car analogy, but at least I liked the picture it gave me.
Re:Don't coin dumb and inaccurate words (Score:3, Interesting)
"Activist" hasn't meant anything positive in a long time, ever since the basic philosophy of too many activist groups became "We'll make your lives miserable until you give in and do what WE want you to do." Thanks to groups like ALF/ELF and the money-making/laundering machines behind many others (see http://www.activistcash.com/ [activistcash.com] ), "activist" has almost become synonymous with "domestic terrorist".
It's the same unfortunate regression of meaning that "hacker" suffers from, for the same reasons -- too many black hats among the white hats.