Taking on an Online Extortionist 784
An anonymous reader writes "When an online exortionist comes a knocking, threatining a DDoS, do you pay or fight? For many, paying may seem like a sensible option when compared to going out of buisness. CSO Magazine has a riveting article about how an online gambling site and a DDoS specialist teamed up to take on such an extortionist. When everybody else was rolling over and paying, this company risked its very existence to fight back. From the article: '"The attack went to 1.5Gb, with bursts up to 3Gb. It wasn't targeted at one thing. It was going to routers, DNS servers, mail servers, websites. It was like a battlefield, where there's an explosion over here, then over there, then it's quiet, then another explosion somewhere else," says Lyon. "They threw everything they had at us. I was just in shock."'"
oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Or however he said it
Here's a tip (Score:4, Funny)
Even Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
I guess that includes getting a mention on Slashdot?
Troc
So now we're gonna slashdot 'em? (Score:5, Funny)
The DDoS worked apparently. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's frightening (Score:4, Funny)
gambling and extortion? (Score:3, Funny)
DDoS? (Score:1, Funny)
I fell for one of these (Score:2, Funny)
Re:gambling and extortion? (Score:3, Funny)
Just do what we do on IRC (Score:5, Funny)
Extorting a gambling site? (Score:5, Funny)
Many gambling sites still have connections to, shall we say, respectible businessmen of the Italian or Asian pursuasion, who are used to handling such matters extra-legally.
You might just wake up one day with your computer's monitor (cables severed with an ax) in bed with you.
Or Guido and Nunzio standing over you, giving you tips on the finer points of extortion while they wait for the concrete to set.
Re:So now we're gonna slashdot 'em? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Curious (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:3, Funny)
What about the interns?
Next News Story... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm glad that somebody's standing up to the jerk though... people who do stuff like that are wasting perfectly good matter.
Re:Curious (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:1, Funny)
How many times have you pointed them at a human?
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:4, Funny)
Blockbuster? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Curious (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Curious (Score:5, Funny)
All the 813,621 users before you don't really exist. These messages are randomly generated geek buzzwords. "Users" are given personalities, ranging from "Linux lover" to "Windows loser", from "I'm just a troll" to "IAARS", from "Funny" to "I take myself serious, but no one else does".
Those "personalities" alter the pre-populated phrase list according to topic (actually, I am not even sure the topic matters). Think of it as an advanced Turing simulation.
I was fooled for my first three months. Then, I saw the predictable responses, and realized that there was no actual intellegence here. Just the occassional real life person who wanders in and is fooled for a while. The auto-misspell feature was a nice addition, I have to admit.
Want proof? Pick a user id. Peruse messge list. Notice the lack of variety? Notice the lack of real meaning behind each message? And when there is real content, try browsing earlier messages. You will find phrases ripped verbatim from an earlier post.
Of course, you may also be a bot. CommanderTaco is always making tweaks to the message generation algorithm (though his posts, too, are mostly generated by code). I will have to peruse your message history when I am done posting here.
EVIL! (Score:5, Funny)
From: Father Mayai (Yes, you may!)
Subject: Notice of Eviction
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:2, Funny)
KFG
Re:Fight! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh wait...
You can send us $40K by Western Union [and] your site will be protected
Richardson runs BetCris.com, an online wagering site, one of hundreds of sites ensconced in Costa Rica that take bets from Americans
Lyon says, "I could have left it alone, but I had gotten attached, and I started investigating. I came up with some interesting techniques to trace back the attacks." He turned over his work to several law enforcement agencies, but he never heard about it again.
"Um, hello - FBI? Hi. Yes I run a website gambling business offshore in Costa Rica and I just got threated by someone who says they will shut me down unless I wire fourty thousand via Western Union to someone in Belarus who *click* Hello?"
"They threw everything they had at us." (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Question (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, leave me out of this! I can't even get my own articles accepted.
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Would you have been happier if you remembered it because you were there in person?
God knows your
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:5, Funny)
Because, sometimes that Windows box crashes one time to many...
age discrimination! (Score:5, Funny)
Watch it with the age slurs there, sonny. That could get
Re:Even Slashdot? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:3, Funny)
In actual fact, my Batman utility belt is getting kinda crowded. Ipaq 5500, Nokia 6620, Motorola HS850, Knife, and Gun. I think I need a pair of suspenders. (Does Jinx sell geek-spenders?) Fortunately for me, I have a larger circumference than the average geek, which gives me more belt real-estate. I don't know how you twiggy types carry all of your gadgets..
New "business idea" (Score:3, Funny)
I'm trying to read the article and that is giving me another "business idea".
"Give me $10 000 or I'll submit an article to Slashdot with a link to your web site".
Distributed Denial of Service!
Re:EVIL! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, In Nevada, it's called "brandishing".
Take a fucking joke people, jeez. Yes, the story is true. Yes, we all carry Glocks. No, we didn't point them at anyone. Just snatching the fucker out of his perceived anonymity was enough. (hint to the AC's?)
When asked why we carried, our stock response was "We take Network Security VERY seriously." And follow it up with (in my best Monty Python) "I don't like SPAM!".
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:3, Funny)
He also looked like every baby ever born.
It's true! all babies look like Winston Churchill.
Quite scary, really...
Re:Question (Score:4, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:3, Funny)
Hay Winston, why not try fighting them in Germany?
Re:That's frightening (Score:1, Funny)
I'm starting a company much like that myself. Nice network you've got here, hate to see anything happen to it. I can protect it for you... for a price.
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:4, Funny)
Lady Astor, first woman elected to the House of Commons, to Winston Churchill:
-- If you were my husband, I would poison your coffee.
-- If you were my wife, I would drink it.
So... (Score:5, Funny)
...is submitting a story to /. the last revenge of the DDOS extortioner?
Re:Good, some balls. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:age discrimination! (Score:5, Funny)
*grumble* . . . get off my web site, you damn kids!
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:2, Funny)
sPh
Re:Here's a tip (Score:3, Funny)
READ YOUR EMAIL, DUMBASS!
---
watch funny commercials [tubespot.com]
Is it just me... (Score:3, Funny)
"Lyon was 23 and looked at least that young. His blond hair offset a tan, handsome face. Allec says Lyon looked like he had given up a day of surfing to swing by and help out."
Re:Even Slashdot? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, sounds like our last family vacation!
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:2, Funny)
The bloody Red Baron was flying once more
The Allied command ignored all of its men
And called on Snoopy to do it again.
Twas the night before Christmas, 40 below
When Snoopy went up in search of his foe
He spied the Red Baron, fiercely they fought
With ice on his wings Snoopy knew he was caught.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of all the world
And good will to man
The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sights
He reached for the trigger to pull it up tight
Why he didn't shoot, well, we'll never know
Or was it the bells from the village below.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man
The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out, "Merry Christmas, my friend"
The Baron then offered a holiday toast
And Snoopy, our hero, saluted his host
And then with a roar they were both on their way
Each knowing they'd meet on some other day.
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man
Re:Curious (Score:3, Funny)
Oh cool, this must be one of those meta-tin-hat /.-bots I heard Taco was developing! Sowing seeds of dissent and conspiracy for its own sake.
What a great entry-level comment to test with too! By publicly 'outing' the very system it is a part of no one will take this position as serious anymore and simply decry those who suggest it a yet another foil-hatter, while simultaneously freeing this chat-bot of being accused as one. After all if it were a bot, why would it point out all its own secrets?
Bravo Taco, you are to be commended for this nasty little piece of deception. But of course, if 822545 is a bot, then how can I prove that I am not one? Well, quite easily, you see der lichentttttt ^H^H^H^H
WARNING -- Unhandled parsing error at 0x0E346B22: Core meta-logic rebuttle memory dump in progress! Rebooting comment generation APU at segment data 2501 -- END
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Careful picking on the '19 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Rudyard Kipling's "Dane-geld" - extortion poem (Score:5, Funny)
It seems a good idea to sit in Eastern Europea
And mail out missives with a threat
"We know that you have gold, and if I may be so bold
If you send me some I will not be a threat"
And that is called running protection
And the scum who demand it defend
That you only have to pay them protection
And your enterprise won't have to end.
It is a real temptation to avoid a confrontation
And pay off the bottom sucking filth
Then the business you created won't be immolated
By the bandwidth sucking zombies and their ilk
And that is called paying protection
But after you've paid up today
They'll come calling for more protection
There will never be an end to what you pay
It's a shame to whimper quietly and meet with their demand
To keep the money flowing fast and free
So when they do demand the little money in your hand
I would suggest that you repeat slowly after me.
"We never pay any scum protection
I am no Rudyard Kipling, but I think this captures the essence of itNo matter how hard they may lean
For tomorrow you'll be back threatening to hack
Using any zombies you can glean "
Re:Simple solution. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Extorting a gambling site? (Score:5, Funny)
If such a job were available I'd personally be going through sharpshooter training right now.
Re:Even Slashdot? (Score:3, Funny)
> could ever throw at you.
I doubt it. As near as I can figure, a solid slashdotting comes to at most a two-digit MBPS figure, and that can only be kept up for a day or so. If you RTFA, it was talking about attacks of over 1GBPS sustained for weeks. That's something like fifty slashdottings at a time, more than once a day. The article didn't say what kinds of packets these were (forged-source SYN, reflected ACK, or what), but you get the idea that it was different kinds at different points.
In any event, the attack was apparently more bandwidth-consumptive brute-force than any particular cleverness. In practice, that's probably the most effective type of attack, because a clever attack (such as a traditional SYN flood) is subject to being thwarted by greater cleverness on the defensive end (e.g., SYN cookies). But a bandwidth-consumptive distributed attack is hard to defend against without having a bigger pipe than the aggregate bandwidth of the zombies.
(In the short term, that is; in the long term, given adequate resources and expertise, you eventually track the whole thing down and set the authorities on the perp, or failing that (e.g., if the whole operation is being run from the Federated People's Democratic Republic of Bob's Two-Acre One-Inch-Above-Sea-Level South-Pacific Coral Atol In International Waters (FPDRBTAOIASLSPCAIIW)) get his ISP to shut him down, but that all takes time, and meanwhile you want to keep your network online as much as possible.)
Re:age discrimination! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
Actually (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you
Re:oblig Churchill (Score:5, Funny)
-davidu
Re:age discrimination! (Score:2, Funny)