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ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

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191–200 of 233 posts

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From their blog: https://protonmaildotcom.wordpress.com/ At around 2PM, the attackers began directly attacking the infrastructure of our upstream providers and the datacenter itself. The coordinated assault on our ISP exceeded 100Gbps and attacked not only the datacenter, but also routers in Zurich, Frankfurt, and other locations where our ISP has nodes. This coordinated assault on key infrastructure eventually manag…

So if you start following what flows out of that bitcoin account, couldn't you find out who it benefits?

Theoretically maybe, but I'm sure they'll be using a mixing service to obfuscate the destination(s).

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, tell your clients to back their stuff up with their own methods, too, just in case you come under heavy attack. This goes for any 'in the cloud' data that you might have. In the end it's your data and your company that is at stake. Not all data wipe-outs are malicious, sometimes accidents do happen.

Banks are tripping over themselves to get out of the datacenter business and put all their files on Azure/Rackspace/AWS/what have you. It's embarrassing.

It really is. I'm hoping they're just offloading less consequential crap instead of core apps. Those are on mainframes in most banks I know. Maybe legacy lock-in will save customers' data and money from cost-cutting managers. Ya think? Would be ironic as hell haha.

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#193
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess Kipling's knowledge of this had a practical basis, since he was one of the chief apologists for the systematic extortion the British Empire used to enrich itself.

Was he really? The White Man's Burden isn't that ambiguous. Not now, and not even when it was written. It was about the Philippine-American war. 2 days after publication in America, it was read in the Senate to argue for the US to end the war. One of his more famous stories, The Man Who Would Be King is about two white men who manage to convince an Afghani tribe they're gods. It becomes undone, when one tries to marr…

"One of his more famous stories..."

Ever see the John Huston film adaption?

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wrath of the Khans was amazing. Seemed like your odds of dying were pretty high either way. Give him all your stuff and starve. Or say no and get beheaded..

And let's not forget that 1 in 200 people around the world are his direct descendants

https://xkcd.com/1545/

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A backup is a copy of your files on another medium physically disjoint in space and not connected to the original in any way that you verify is correct after having written a copy. Anything less than that is not a backup but a mirror and mirrors while useful are not at the same level of security that a backup is. Some copies are backups, but not all of them and most copies on spinning or re-writeable media especially…

So to make true backups, is one limited in practice to tapes and DVDs?

No, you can use spinning media just fine, as long as you take them off-line after making your copy and if they're in the same physical location to remove them from the premises.

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wrath of the Khans was amazing. Seemed like your odds of dying were pretty high either way. Give him all your stuff and starve. Or say no and get beheaded..

And let's not forget that 1 in 200 people around the world are his direct descendants

How do you know that?

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#197
post #13

God, why? That's utter incompetence. Never pay ransoms. This has highly lowered my opinion of ProntoMail.

I know you mistyped it, but ProntoMail really sounds cool.

All rights Reserved, Mailcentro, Inc Copyright © 2002-2013

(damn, it does sound like a cool domain)

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#198
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that it seems when it comes to Azure everyone feels safe then also backing up to Azure (specifically talking about SQL database here). Sigh...

Every time I hear stuff like that I point people to this link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/18/code_spaces_destroye...

Damn, I feel for them. That said, I feel better about how I've incessantly posted Wheeler's page over the years whenever source control comes up. Despite many being annoyed, they have no idea how important it is to have great security, storage, and recovery on this stuff. Between Wheeler's page & Orange Book A1 stuff, the practices today look kind of abysmal and ripe for the taking.

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/scm-security.html

Orange Book systems' (1980's to early 90's) used air gaps and/or paper backups in safes. OpenCM, a robust SCM by Shapiro et al, mentions that among other things:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060315100242/http://opencm.org...

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#199
post #32

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- "We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight, Unless you pay us cash to go away." And that is called asking for Dane-geld, And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld And then you'll get rid of the Dane! It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look impo…

I really hate to think that some of the btc I donated is now with some criminal.

Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

#200
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would you rather had the British empire or the Belgium or Germans as your colonial masters?

If you're genuinely interested in an answer, then like a sibling said, its "neither". Colonialism wasn't as inevitable as its made out to be, and the countries that were colonized weren't "uncivilized" or "barbaric": things that world history (amazingly) continues to propagate. e.g. Colonialism in India was an incredible amount of good luck and some wily statesmanship, and not due to lack of technological progress. O…

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