Anti-US Hacker Takes Credit For Worm 221
angry tapir writes "Credit for the "Here You Have" worm (recently discussed on Slashdot), has been taken by a hacker known as 'Iraq Resistance' who says the worm was designed, in part, as a propaganda tool. He said he had not expected the worm to spread as broadly as it had, and noted that he could have done much more damage to victims. 'I could smash all those infected but I wouldn't,' said the hacker. 'I hope all people understand that I am not negative person!' In other parts of the message, he was critical of the US war in Iraq. For a brief period early the worm accounted for about 10 percent of the spam on the Internet."
Re:bad title tag (Score:4, Informative)
It's just a rip from the article, which is terribly written and fails to provide a lot of context. My initial opinion was this was a stitch up and the hacker was just against the war and people were stretching connections and definitions to make them sound like a security threat. This ComputerWorld article [computerworld.com] is way better at providing the details that link this worm to previous efforts by a Libyan hacker to create a politically motivated hacker group. To describe these guys as anti-US would be, I think, a simplification of the motivation of these groups. Jihadists (and here I also probably simplify) may be prepared to attack the States, but the motivation is not simply anti-US. I found this article on Eurozine [eurozine.com] to be really interesting on breaking down their attitudes.
Why is the title not worded "Windows worm"? (Score:5, Informative)
Certainly any such story on /. should point out the affected operating systems...
Re:Not negative? (Score:5, Informative)
The broken window fallacy is that a broken window causes the owner to buy a new window which employs the window maker, who then buys something else, and so and so on. Resulting in a boost to the economy. It's an obvious fallacy.
My claim was nothing to do with that at all, here's the example for the morons:
1. Dr Evil has found a bug in Windows and has his team of hackers writing an exploit which he will use to blow up the power grid in North America.
2. Joe the Crappy Hacker also finds said bug and tells Microsoft
3. Microsoft does nothing.
4. Dr Evil pulls the switch and Americans can't watch TV for an evening.
Compared with: ;a bug in Windows and has his team of hackers writing an exploit which he will use to blow up the power grid in North America.
1. Dr Evil has found
2. Joe the Crappy Hacker also find said bug and writes some malware that displays a political message and distributes itself via email.
3. Microsoft rushes to fix the problem and releases an emergency patch.
4. Dr Evil pulls the switch and nothing happens because the exploit was fixed.
The second situation has less negative consequences for society, and hence the malware was positive for society.
Yes I don't think it's a particularly likely, in fact I don't think it will ever occur. It is however, a possible situation (well the bug getting fixed before a more damaging exploit part, not the Dr Evil part).
But even if you disagree with that it still isn't a broken window fallacy, because it isn't making claims about economic benefit of any activity at all.
If you majored in economics then I suggest asking for refund. Then again I guess if you only have a hammer then the whole world looks like a nail.
Re:"Anti-US" Hacker? (Score:5, Informative)
Your post couldn't make it more clear that you're a bigot fed on Fox News propaganda.
The catholic church the evil infidels "destroyed" is still there. I visited it a few years ago. It's the main landmark in the beautiful city of Cordoba. Oh, by the way, they take great pride in their Arab heritage.
Re:Why is the title not worded "Windows worm"? (Score:1, Informative)
And yet MS *STILL* hides the file extensions be default.
I have yet to see a situation where that didn't screw up users.
More gold from the brilliant thinkers that brought you AutoRun (at least they fixed that).
Re:"Anti-US" Hacker? (Score:5, Informative)
No, they named it "Cordoba House" because for centuries Cordoba was a place where Christians, Muslims, and Jews freely lived and worked together. Historians all agree that Moorish rule was a period of tolerance in European history, so much so that those centuries were called the "Golden Age of Judaism" since Jews could work and study freely when they were banned elsewhere in Europe. The great Jewish scholar Maimonides came out of that environment, at a time when the Muslims gave free university tuition to all citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
It's a terrible slander to start accusing the Muslims and Jews and Christians on board with this project as having some sort of malevolence. This Republican talking point shocks me because it's completely false and anyone who even glances at Wikipedia would find it so, yet still gets spread. Rather than argue the point, they renamed the place to Park51 to avoid false controversy