Tallahassee Group The Computer Dudes Launches Counter Attack on Internet War.

The Computer Dudes Online ^ | 07-03-03 | The Computer Dudes

[numberonepal]

Tallahassee - The War began silently this morning at around 2:00 AM EST. Complaints to Internet Service providers are up, and it's all because of a handful of people who have nothing better to do than attempt to destroy our normal way of life.

The Computer Dudes in Tallahassee are in a bit of a tizzy this afternoon. While preparing for the launch of their new Web Communications Tool, they were caught off guard early this morning by what seems to be an cyber attack.

"This is a serious attack, and these hackers are just practicing today. It's going to get worse. We need to compile all of our weapons to defend our commerce and communications backbone against cyber-terrorism right now", an excited Todd Byars, CEO The Computer Dudes, said. "The White Hats, good hackers, have had enough. We are going after these scumbags that want to mess up our cool toys. Yesterday we started getting some tickles of people doing a little probing. The next step is for more and more of them to go out and do it. A lot are kids trying to make a name for themselves in the hacking community. They have no idea that their activities could lead to them not being able to even turn on their computer or their toaster or drive their Dad's car. A lot of these guys already have doors open waiting to shove dump trucks full of data through them. They're cheating at their own game, and giving us an opening to counter attack"

[numberonepal]

Sounds a little like a tin foil alert, but interesting. At least someone is thinking about it because I've heard very little in the press about it, and next to nothing about the attacks last night.

[Drango]

???? why not post the article???

[Search4Truth]

Pocket protector ALERT!

[longtermmemmory]

riaa?

[numberonepal]

OK, just playing around with the thing. Here tis:

Tallahassee Group The Computer Dudes Launches Counter Attack on Internet War.
Thursday, July 3, 2003

Tallahassee - The War began silently this morning at around 2:00 AM EST. Complaints to Internet Service providers are up, and it's all because of a handful of people who have nothing better to do than attempt to destroy our normal way of life.

The Computer Dudes in Tallahassee are in a bit of a tizzy this afternoon. While preparing for the launch of their new Web Communications Tool, they were caught off guard early this morning by what seems to be an cyber attack.

"This is a serious attack, and these hackers are just practicing today. It's going to get worse. We need to compile all of our weapons to defend our commerce and communications backbone against cyber-terrorism right now", an excited Todd Byars, CEO The Computer Dudes, said. "The White Hats, good hackers, have had enough. We are going after these scumbags that want to mess up our cool toys. Yesterday we started getting some tickles of people doing a little probing. The next step is for more and more of them to go out and do it. A lot are kids trying to make a name for themselves in the hacking community. They have no idea that their activities could lead to them not being able to even turn on their computer or their toaster or drive their Dad's car. A lot of these guys already have doors open waiting to shove dump trucks full of data through them. They're cheating at their own game, and giving us an opening to counter attack"

Vnunet.com http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140563 is reporting the arrest of an alleged top hacker, Lynn Htun, by Scotland Yard at the Infosecurity Europe show. Allegedly he inserted a virus into their IT network. Htun is wanted in the US in connection with a series of high-profile hacking cases blamed on the hacking group Fluffi Bunni.

IT managers all over the world are bracing themselves for the so-called "Defacers' Challenge". These hackers are going to go for the most venerable sites first. They score points for either changing the content or graphics on a page, or inserting their own page into the site. These vandals are going to try to hack 6000 sites each in as little time as possible. Apparently it's a larger group than most thought at first considering the lessons learned last night.

A phone call to Comcast found them tight lipped. Many of the white hat hackers in Tallahassee run on Comcast broadband services, and the reports of slow downs are heavy. Many reposted outages early this morning at around 3:00 AM EST. "I just had no service with my provider, and my dial-up back up accounts were useless. We finally got steady service at about 11:00. Our calls to Comcast were met with the usual "unplug your modem" blither. They said there we no outages in the area, but everyone I know was down," said "bleacher", a white hat hacker who did not wish to divulge his name. "We were expecting the attack to begin last night, and we were listening in to see what was going on out there. We got a spike in activity, then the service was out, and there wasn't much we could do to get back on. It seemed organized to me."

The Computer Dudes Marketing VP seemed to be the conscience of the group. "I'm not breaking out the tinfoil hat just yet, but there seems to be something getting these guys excited. Although I know little about hacking, I trust them. I've seen them make calls as if they could see into the future. Their information is usually solid, and Mr. Byars and I consider their advice very seriously. We have taken the appropriate action to protect ourselves, and are working very hard to protect our Customers."

Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying they know about the attacker's plans, but didn't believe the public needed any warning. They did, however, caution all US Agencies to beef up security on Federal Web Sites. The statement goes on to say they have "credible information" regarding the proposed vandalism, and confirmed the suspicions of The Computer Dudes about the probes yesterday. FBI spokesman Bill Murray said, "The FBI is taking this very seriously". Too bad for the little guys out there hosting their own Sites, expressing ideas, playing games, and contributing to making the Internet a better experience. The businesses out there that make the world go give us all jobs and feed our families are also under attack. Business keeps the Internet running and running well, and it's time for all White Hats to help out.

There does seem to be a war brewing out there and it looks like it could get interesting. Mr. Byars says it going to be worse tonight, and hints that the real attack could actually be tomorrow, but will not say so on the record. As the time draws nearer to the start of the real show it's good to know there are guys like The Computer Dudes out there to watch over us. You always knew the geeks would save the world anyway, didn't you?

Created: 7/3/2003 8:24:01 PM
© 2003 The Computer Dudes All rights reserved. Please link appropriately.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

but damn he sounds like a geek who has never gotten laid in his life when he says crap like that.

As a mother of two children, I say that I would rather raise them to be geeks, then have them be promiscuous fools.

[numberonepal]

Well, if you look in the forum at that Site there's a topic for Encryption Module Development. Talk about geekin' out. Although off color, DU may have a point.
But you are right Pan_Yans Wife, we do need the geeks, and probably more than we care to know or admit.

[Vision]

LOLOLOL

Your dead right

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The funny thing is these geeks seem like they actually are really involved in caring about the internet community... and they should be applauded for that. I don't think this means that they do not have fulfilling lives. Some of the best people I have ever met are truly geeks... and they are really interesting people!

[George W. Bush]

We need to compile all of our weapons to defend our commerce and communications backbone against cyber-terrorism right now", an excited Todd Byars, CEO The Computer Dudes, said.

Take a pill, drama nerd.

BTW, Fox News ran a few warnings about this planned 6-hour attack in the last few days.

[FairOpinion]

Hacking is a serious security threat, not to be taken lightly, it's not tinfoil stuff.

It's great that there are some White Hat hackers out there who are willing to fight the Black Hats.

Government warns of mass hacker attacks (Sunday, July 6
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/939344/posts

See also:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50765-2002Jun26


"A forensic summary of the investigation, prepared in the Defense Department, said the bureau found "multiple casings of sites" nationwide. Routed through telecommunications switches in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Pakistan, the visitors studied emergency telephone systems, electrical generation and transmission, water storage and distribution, nuclear power plants and gas facilities.

White House and FBI analysts, as well as officials in the Energy and Commerce departments with more direct responsibility for the civilian infrastructure, describe the threat in more robust terms.

"We were underestimating the amount of attention [al Qaeda was] paying to the Internet," said Roger Cressey, a longtime counterterrorism official who became chief of staff of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in October. "Now we know they see it as a potential attack vehicle. Al Qaeda spent more time mapping our vulnerabilities in cyberspace than we previously thought. An attack is a question of when, not if.

According to officials who read it, the new memo said al Qaeda had "far more interest" in cyber-terrorism than previously believed and contemplated the use of hackers for hire to speed the acquisition of capabilities.

A computer seized at an al Qaeda office contained models of a dam, made with structural architecture and engineering software, that enabled the planners to simulate its catastrophic failure. Bush administration officials, who discussed the find, declined to say whether they had identified a specific dam as a target.

The FBI reported that the computer had been running Microstran, an advanced tool for analyzing steel and concrete structures; Autocad 2000, which manipulates technical drawings in two or three dimensions; and software "used to identify and classify soils," which would assist in predicting the course of a wall of water surging downstream.

To destroy a dam physically would require "tons of explosives," Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff said a year ago. To breach it from cyberspace is not out of the question. In 1998, a 12-year-old hacker, exploring on a lark, broke into the computer system that runs Arizona's Roosevelt Dam. He did not know or care, but federal authorities said he had complete command of the SCADA system controlling the dam's massive floodgates."

[adam_az]

This is not BREAKING NEWS

This is a serious attack, and these hackers are just practicing today. It's going to get worse. We need to compile all of our weapons to defend our commerce and communications backbone against cyber-terrorism right now", an excited Todd Byars, CEO The Computer Dudes, said.

This is totally idiotic.

Computer Dudes? More like the Computer Dweebs.

Lucky for Free Republic, Krusgnet is watching over!

[JackelopeBreeder]

I haven't checked yet tonight, but attrition.org is usually a good place to follow these periodic hacker wars. During the big one with the Chinese after the P-3 incident, that was like a front row seat. It took months for the Chinese to recover. Hacker groups from all over the world joined in and posted copies of their exploits on that site -- and details of how they did it. It was like a post-doctoral course in hacking.

It was an odd set of alliances. Groups from Korea and northern Europe sided with China. Groups from South America, southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East sided with us. The script-kiddies were just defacing sites; the real pros were ripping the guts out of entire networks.

Most memorable change to a Chinese government home page: "Yes, Grasshopper, I boned your server." And it was the only page that still worked...

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The script-kiddies were just defacing sites; the real pros were ripping the guts out of entire networks.

Interesting distinction. Like those that defaced the al-Jazeera website, by installing the American flag. Does the law make a distinction, when it comes time to prosecute?

[JackelopeBreeder]

Nope, but catching the culprits and proving it in court can be really difficult. It's usually only the inexperienced who get caught.

[numberonepal]

Lucky for us all, that someone cares. Perhaps I posted in the wrong forum, but it seems to me that these guys are mobilizing right now. Heck, to get anybody to do anything in Tallahassee is breaking news.

[steplock]

"Sounds a little like a tin foil alert"

Remember - for the two weeks PRECEDING the Sept 11 attacks, the USA was beseiged by extreme cyber attacks emminating mainly from China and Indonesia, with much less coming from Korea, the Phillipines and Germany. I was sitting here watching the servers get thousands of hits (didn't get in here) but Istarted traceroutes back the sources (not standard ping or tracer commands).

The USA has been cyber-attacks several other times, but it is NOT widely distributed since most people would just think "TIN FOIL ALERT" since you do SEE anything.

But it IS there!