Hack attack! Taking down criminal media sites

Just one example of many | Mid-to-late March '03 | Various Psuedonyms

[anymouse]

Al Jazeera is a foreign site spewing anti-American propaganda. It is a legitimate target.

Where as I would have no idea of how to attack such a site, I applaud those that choose to serve their country and take the fight to the enemy through such means.

It wouldn't break my heart if Indymedia and their ilk were targets as well, but I do respect their right to free espression - up until they break the law. They are bordering on conspiracy to commit a crime by giving detailed info. about how to do DDOS attacks to any leftist script kiddie with a grudge. I'm sure the FBI will be knocking on their door shortly.

[Poohbah]

John, you might want to consider disallowing hotmail/yahoo mail accounts for new registrants.

[hchutch]

My thoughts exactly.

Besides, it's not like they're gonna do any more about this.

Interesting trivia I heard from someone MORE computer-savvy than I. Wholesale hacking went on between American and ChiCom hackers (we're talking defacement, DDOS, and stuff like that) during the crisis over that EP-3E incident (where that ChiCom pilot was NOT watching where he was going), and to date there have been ZERO indictments or prosecutions.

Come to think of it, those cases may have been placed below "fixing that nasty left hook on the SAC's swing at the 6th hole at Army-Navy," "finding lost puppies," and "getting cats out of trees."

[smith288]

Hey, as long as they have Alexa on, it can only help us

[smith288]

Hey, MINE is yahoo!

[Poohbah]

Note that I said "new registrants." You'd be grandfathered.

[smith288]

Shwew! I have about 7 accounts though...i probably COULD switch it. haha

[bmwcyle]

bttt for all to review

[drlevy88]

If it's truly contrary to US law, I don't advocate any such thing. I wish I knew what the US code on this actually said. Whether it expressly forbids the usage of any US network as a part of an effort to hack or to try to hack a computer anywhere in the world. I could see why Congress would want to ban this, so the US can make a case to the world that we won't tolerate malicious cyber-acts perpetrated from our country. Now whether people located in, say, Liberia can hack Iraq to their heart's content, that's completely out of US control. I'd expect the CIA to get nervous about any significant amount of internet traffic going to Iraq from the USA, even if it turned out to be only hacking traffic. A clever Iraqi agent in the USA could surely disguise a communication as, say, a "patriotic DOS attack."

[drlevy88]

If you're not planning on searching Free Republic for the next hour or so, reload our search page about a dozen times in quick succession

This could, I guess, end up temporarily blocking everybody behind a corporate firewall. Perhaps the protect-bot could attempt to send a notificatory email via SNMP to abuse@[ip-address] when it triggers, and if it succeeds then time out in 5 minutes rather than an hour.