Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 636 posts

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#141

Post by 55555 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #122
bink wrote: post #94

This thread is mostly full of jokes, and that's cool. But more seriously I'm exactly the kind of person I suppose this is meant to appeal to. I've spent the last 2-3 decades breaking into systems. Many of these systems comprise what the US calls "critical infrastructure". That's pipelines, power generation, transmission, distribution. Air traffic control systems. Government agencies. I'm based in the US. The problem…

I mean, it's probably legal for you to fill out the application as a US citizen, as the Ukrainians are also asking for defensive help. If you have or want a US security clearance there may be issues in helping a foreign power, but absent that you can probably stay on the right side of the line. Obviously, you'd want a real legal opinion. I do wonder at what point the US just declares Russian computer systems beyond t…

Note that Biden just worked hard, and, it seems, effectively, to round up Russian hackers targeting US infra after the pipeline hack. I doubt he wants to undo this progress.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#142

Post by HWR_14 »

TameAntelope wrote: post #37

Am I the only one who thinks this is well intentioned but kind of silly? I don’t know a lot about this space, but I don’t know especially how many skills translate from offense to defense. Is this basically just a call for folks to turn in their 0days and access or something? Seems wt least marginally more useful than trying to train up a bunch of script kiddies to fight GRU…

It's a request to submit your resume (which can be as simple as any malware or exploit you created) for cyber offense or cyber defense. If you can help secure Ukrainian government systems they want you and if you can install malware in the Russian's tech they want you.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#143

Post by jtsuken »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #57
simne wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank You for answer. What I see now, kremlin for sure have not prepared for long term war campaign, they just have not built hospitals for wounded (thanks to western sat photos, provided by official sources), and this is extremely important, because in real war, 80% wounded die within 24h if have not received medical care in nearest 1-2 hours. And if will be resistance, attacking forces will have very large number o…

Thank you for the insight. Godspeed. If you have links to organisations we can support from far away (with money, labour or lobbying), those would be appreciated.

The central bank accepts donations on behalf of the Ukrainian army:

https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-sp...

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#144

Post by ck2 »

I guess in this era every little thing "helps" like imaging something on the internet changes something but other than "boots on the ground" START SEIZING PHYSICAL ASSETS.

Only oligarchs are going to stop Putin and the only way to get them to do anything is take away all their toys in every other country.

Take their yachts, take all those apartments like in Florida and New York. Take them all.

Sanctions unfortunately also splatter and punish the rest of the people in Russia who have zero control over this.

But you take their yachts and real-estate in every other country, suddenly there is some motivation where it counts.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#145

Post by jtsuken »

electroly wrote: post #88
whatshisface wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All your points seem to reduce support for and divert it from the Ukranian government and their military. Isn't that absurdly dangerous in this moment? Almost none of the people on HN have anything to contribute to the Ukranian military. At the same time, all of the things related to actually living as a person in any country, at war or peace time, revolve around jobs, the economy and technology, things people on H…

You can donate money to the Ukrainian military. It's not very convenient (no PayPal etc.) but the military is accepting foreign donations via wire transfers. https://ukraine.ua/news/support-the-armed-forces-of-ukraine/

Here is a link to the Ukrainian National Bank's page with more payment options:

https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-sp...

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#147

Post by black_puppydog »

jtsuken wrote: post #130
bink wrote: post #94

This thread is mostly full of jokes, and that's cool. But more seriously I'm exactly the kind of person I suppose this is meant to appeal to. I've spent the last 2-3 decades breaking into systems. Many of these systems comprise what the US calls "critical infrastructure". That's pipelines, power generation, transmission, distribution. Air traffic control systems. Government agencies. I'm based in the US. The problem…

If you don't want to engage on the offensive side, there is plenty of work on the defensive side of things. * Detect and notify the Ukrainian government about threats or upcoming attacks. * Identify coordinated manipulative behaviour on social media. * Last but not least contact Patreon's management to release the funds that have been donated to Ukrainian veterans ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30461038 ) Fee…

Sorry but what?

* It looks like there won't be a Ukrainian government to speak of in a few days.

* Manipulative behaviour has been identified on twitter and Facebook almost every day for the last few years, and it hasn't really led to much anything. The Ukrainian government can't do anything about that, if the independent banana republics of FAANG don't decide to act, nothing is gonna change.

* Likewise for patreon. It's a private Company and thus sadly, regrettably, out of reach of public scrutiny or regulation. Thoughts and prayers are free and abundant though! Besides, what is the Ukrainian government gonna do with money right now? I bet tanks and air defense systems have long lead times these days, chip shortage and all.

Sorry for the overboarding sarkasm... I guess. But these are my points.

Edit:

Collecting downvotes for that. Not surprised, but I'm not seeing any counterpoints, really. It's okay if you just need a valve to let off your frustration, have at it, but what the parent suggested seems.... pointless, sorry to be blank. I mean, this sort of soft influence might be useful, but we ("the west") have been proving, on an ongoing basis, for multiple years now, that corporate decisions shall not and will not be questioned by our governments, that essentially an american-based platform has unbridled control over what they want to do, and that if they don't care about trolls and bots and harassment and nationalism andandand then there's not much "we" (read: the government, first of all the US government) can^Wwill do. What is the ukraininan government gonna do with more intel on russian propaganda? What's the actionable on that? Start a war with twitter?

As for the first point. Yeah... I don't see the mechanism by which any of this will slow down the physical process of soldiers marching on Kyiv. No NATO state will enter into this conflict, Putin has been pretty openly threatening with nuclear annihilation. And I would doubt that the russian soldiers will be hanging out on twitter enough to really get distracted by some well thought-through anti-propaganda measures.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#148

Post by jollybean »

Just like nobody would even talk about Nord Stream 1, or EU didn't want to cancel Swift, and EU leader is literally talking about a 'pretty lit up building' in 'support of Ukraine' - while Ukraine is begging for weapons ...

I'm wary that this is a little too late.

If you want to help, call your Senator and demand that they supply Ukraine with as many Javelins and Stingers as they can, unlimited small arms, equipment and medical supplies, naval defence missiles, mobile surface to air missiles with radars, drone and possibly some cruise missiles.

And then for the US to scuttle a few Russian ships and blockade all of their ports.

And then to sabotage their infra, their internet, their pipelines, railroads and electricity.

Because that would actually be useful.

The events unfolding right now are as big as 9/11 and we will witness similar tensions over Taiwan. After the loss of Hong Kong and 'cutting losses' in Afghanistan - and a global pandemic - it's vey bad for the world.

I'm wary that reading headlines on seems a whole lot less meaningful than it did a few days ago.

Folks, I remember the tail end of the Cold War as a kid and it was not a happy time.

I remember when the Berlin Wall came down and the USSR collapsed it was like a giant global fear lifted from everything. We used to make movies and TV shows all the time about global nuclear annihilation.

I believe that's why maybe GenX and Boomers are less afraid of 'Climate Change' - because it's something we can and will eventually conquor - we've been there before.

But living with an intransigent Russia who is hinting and 'things which have never been seen' (aka some kind of nukes) while invading a country - and having the West mostly twiddle their thumbs and watch, is ominous for what it means in the future.

We could see another few generations of really existential angst, where, once it sets into everyone's psyche's, we kind of 'forget' what normal peace feels like.

I don't think hacking is the thing at this point.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#149

Post by lalaland1125 »

stickfigure wrote: post #100
bink wrote: post #94

This thread is mostly full of jokes, and that's cool. But more seriously I'm exactly the kind of person I suppose this is meant to appeal to. I've spent the last 2-3 decades breaking into systems. Many of these systems comprise what the US calls "critical infrastructure". That's pipelines, power generation, transmission, distribution. Air traffic control systems. Government agencies. I'm based in the US. The problem…

I think it's reasonable to assume that for at least the next few months, you have a strange form of "diplomatic immunity" for attacks in Russia. No jury in the US would convict you, even in the unlikely event someone wanted to prosecute (which would be political suicide here). So, have at it.

This is extremely terrible advice.

You should delete your comment before you cause someone to go to jail.

Re: Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

#150

Post by Const-me »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #57
simne wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank You for answer. What I see now, kremlin for sure have not prepared for long term war campaign, they just have not built hospitals for wounded (thanks to western sat photos, provided by official sources), and this is extremely important, because in real war, 80% wounded die within 24h if have not received medical care in nearest 1-2 hours. And if will be resistance, attacking forces will have very large number o…

Thank you for the insight. Godspeed. If you have links to organisations we can support from far away (with money, labour or lobbying), those would be appreciated.

Not GP, but here’s a large non-government organization which accepts donations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Back_Alive

https://savelife.in.ua/en/

Post reply on HN