Paul Vixie On DNS Changer: We're Dealing With Malware the Wrong Way 163
AlistairCharlton writes with this snippet: "Victims of the DNS Changer malware think they have better things to do than check their internet security, and as a digital society we're dealing with malware in completely the wrong way. These are the thoughts of Paul Vixie who worked with the FBI in intercepting servers used by a gang of Estonian hackers who made millions of dollars from redirecting internet users away from the websites they requested, directing them to advertisements instead." The linked article also offers an interesting description of how the FBI's quiet takeover of a botnet came to be.
The FBI shouldn't have set up the alternate server (Score:3, Insightful)
... the victims would have noticed that their internet was cut off, and had to take steps to fix the problem then and there.
But presumably somebody at the FBI realised that they could collect all that lovely data on where everybody was going on the internet, and all without the need for a single warrant
Definitely the wrong way (Score:5, Insightful)
Summary: Area Man Has Gut Feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA:
Summing up, Vixie says: "These victims seem to feel that [they] have more important things to worry about. My gut feeling is that they're wrong, but I can't seem to prove it. My other gut feeling about all this is that we, as a digital society, are doing this all wrong."
My gut feeling is that International Business Times didn't really have a useful article but needed some more ad space, so they wrote this thing.
For the few of you considering actually reading the article: There is nothing new to see there. Move along.
the lies we tell ourselves and each other (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'll renew my antivirus licence next day pay"
"The cheque is in the post"
"I'll pull out in time"
All are the many lies people tell themselves and each other.
Basically as humans we tend to only do things which will have an immediate impact, and are capable of doublethink over things which might not happen or can be deferred.
hack is brilliant technically, stupid tactically (Score:4, Insightful)
why did the hackers think they were ever going to get away with it?
it is a brutally effective hack, but...
1. they thought no one was going to notice?
2. and if they noticed, no one was going to do anything about it?
3. and if anyone was going to do anything about it, they didn't see the glaring weak point that would so easily undo all of their hard effort?
commandeer your rogue DNS server. duh!
how come these hackers spent so much time energy and effort in a scheme so easily undone?
this not a matter of "oh, it's easy to point problems in hindsight". these guys obviously had the intellectual capacity to think through the technical requirements of their hack. so they obviously had the intellectual capacity to think through the tactical requirements. none of them said "it will never work: single easy point of failure."
"These are the thoughts of Paul Vixie who worked with the FBI in intercepting servers used by a gang of Estonian hackers who made millions of dollars from redirecting internet users away from the websites they requested, directing them to advertisements instead."
well ok, jokes on me: they realized the weakness, and they bet the authorities were going to react slowly, and they won the bet
Time to take the tinfoil hat off... (Score:5, Insightful)
But presumably somebody at the FBI realised that they could collect all that lovely data on where everybody was going on the internet, and all without the need for a single warrant
Care to show a source, even a single one, for that? The FBI handled this right, asking ISC to install and run the DNS servers. I really doubt the ISC would play ball with any extra-legal requests for data.
Amazing how much pure paranoia is modded up around here
Re:Time to take the tinfoil hat off... (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this handling it right?
Dropping the requests on the floor and teaching these folks a valuable lesson would have been handling it right.
Re:Time to take the tinfoil hat off... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Time to take the tinfoil hat off... (Score:2, Insightful)
I seriously doubt the FBI needs to run DNS servers to get your private data without a warrant. The US government, evil or not, does have an interest in keeping its people's computers safe from non-US gvmt surveillance.
Remember, the NSA has two goals: getting into your data and keeping its enemies out. Don't forget #2.
Re:Computer administration (Score:4, Insightful)
Wasn't this the original intent of the web browser? Rather than connecting your computer to a network of other PCs and running executable files, internet users would be able to set up "webpages" using a markup language that did not execute code on the computers of others who were only viewing the webpage. Drive-by virus downloads were not even possible back in 1995 or 1997 when web browsers actually "browsed" the internet. But browsing endless pages of text, sound, graphics, pictures, GIF animations and even motion video was not enough. Users wanted more interaction. They wanted in-browser games rather than playing stand-alone games in multiplayer mode. They wanted interactive web applications that could perform calculations, not just read back text and pictures like a magazine. Rather than standing against the demands of the uneducated masses due to the risk of anonymous cyber criminals hijacking their machines, HTML was enhanced with JavaScript, Flash and other exotic tools. The browsers made add-ons available and later these functions were buried and integrated deep within the next release of the bare bones browser. Like a boy crying "wolf" the browsers began warning users of the dangers of clicking a hyperlink, allowing cookies, allow scripts, leaving a secure site, certificate missing, etc. while at the same time very few of the websites users needed to see could be accessed without these warnings. Naturally the users began to dismiss most if not all of the automated warning notices. With time the scale and bloat of web browsers increased to surpass that of whole operating systems of old. Plug-ins, pop-ups, location sharing, data mining cookies, and notifications became standard industry practice. The malware hackers had endless fun with the complex, bloated, and vulnerable layers of code that left gaping exploits such that even a benign jpg image could become the carrier for a globally devastating virus. Hackers were even able to add malicious code to legitimate sites. Before long the intrinsically safe browser became the PC users most vulnerable liability.