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I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

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Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#141

Post by csunbird »

vasco wrote: post #111
everforward wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was getting kind of similar vibes. When they reveal the story, it’s basically “traceroute identifies 2 choke point routers, and I DDoSed them with traffic”. That’s cool and neat for guerrilla warfare, but I would assume the NSA and DoD are already aware of that possibility? I wouldn’t even be surprised if they saw the DDoS happening on network monitoring tools. Why clandestine meetings for that? I get why the media…

I imagine the NSA has a fully mapped out network layout for most major foes continuously updated in some sort of inventory database but for enemies, the same way they track large military gear and in which bases its at for their enemies. So yeah this seems very strange.

NSA and similar agencies are probably even mad at him, because he exposed the weakness that they could have exploited when needed, which is probably now patched.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#142

Post by consumer451 »

linearrust wrote: post #139
akira2501 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly. He's creating tools that interest state actors with no real means of defending himself or the tools. If he's that concerned he could just destroy the tools, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. Then, in response to what should have been an obvious outcome to his actions, he commits what should be described as a "crime against humanity" against the entire communications infrastructure of a foreign cou…

> '“It felt like the right thing to do here,” Caceres told WIRED at the time. “If they don’t see we have teeth, it’s just going to keep coming.”' Ask yourself. Do 'hackers' talk like this or military/government employees? Also ask yourself, is WIRED a 'hacker' friendly magazine or a government affiliated state media? Some top WIRED offerings 'Former FBI Agent Explains How to Read Body Language...' 'Former CIA Chief o…

The actual content of his AMA makes the whole US government apparatus look inept.

Ask yourself, is this something that a US government agent would do?

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#143

Post by mewpmewp2 »

valianteffort wrote: post #138
consumer451 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whose lives did he put in danger? Also, if the entirety of the US goverment will not protect you from foreign state-sanctioned personal attacks, what should one do? Just sit there and take it, even if one could stop it? > The State Department has a thing called "Rewards for Justice" and they talk extensively about the NK problem and how we're being hacked all the time. They pay millions for information. I told them "…

If North Korea took down US infrastructure we would consider it an act of war. The dange of exposing your devices to the open internet should be well understood by this so-called "hacker". For him to unilaterally decide to commit an act of war against a foreign nation means he should also be held accountable for it in international criminal court. Were this any other two nations you might have a different tone. But t…

But foreign nations are already constantly trying to hack each other.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#144

Post by akira2501 »

linearrust wrote: post #139
akira2501 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly. He's creating tools that interest state actors with no real means of defending himself or the tools. If he's that concerned he could just destroy the tools, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. Then, in response to what should have been an obvious outcome to his actions, he commits what should be described as a "crime against humanity" against the entire communications infrastructure of a foreign cou…

> '“It felt like the right thing to do here,” Caceres told WIRED at the time. “If they don’t see we have teeth, it’s just going to keep coming.”' Ask yourself. Do 'hackers' talk like this or military/government employees? Also ask yourself, is WIRED a 'hacker' friendly magazine or a government affiliated state media? Some top WIRED offerings 'Former FBI Agent Explains How to Read Body Language...' 'Former CIA Chief o…

> Ask yourself. Do 'hackers' talk like this or military/government employees?

He said thought his tools would be "stolen?" Then this is a lame manufactured pretext which makes it worse. It also makes his actions and broadcasting them _more_ of a crime.

I'm not sure what your point is here.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#145

Post by akira2501 »

consumer451 wrote: post #135
valianteffort wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad someone is saying this. Some obnoxious moron putting countless lives in danger to virtue signal has gotta be a new low on the internet retard scale.

Whose lives did he put in danger? Also, if the entirety of the US goverment will not protect you from foreign state-sanctioned personal attacks, what should one do? Just sit there and take it, even if one could stop it? > The State Department has a thing called "Rewards for Justice" and they talk extensively about the NK problem and how we're being hacked all the time. They pay millions for information. I told them "…

> what should one do?

Examine how their own actions were a large part in creating this particular outcome? Then question if they're worth continuing under such circumstances?

> No response since.

Yea, maybe diplomats should lead the charge, and not self important hackers with a desire to "shut down the internet" in a fit of nerdy rage?

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#146

Post by squigz »

squigz wrote: post #107
gameman144 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like he went in out of pure malice or anything though, they were trying to hack him first. Not saying it's some morally pristine thing, but it definitely communicated what it was trying to communicate. As an analogy, we should have empathy for homeless people stuck in poverty, but if one of them continually bikes to your house and tries to break in, is it morally dubious to eventually take their bike chain r…

Regarding your analogy: I think it would be more like taking the bikes of every homeless person as opposed to just the one. Would that make it more or less morally dubious?

To those downvoting, I'd certainly be curious to hear why.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#147

Post by consumer451 »

akira2501 wrote: post #145
consumer451 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whose lives did he put in danger? Also, if the entirety of the US goverment will not protect you from foreign state-sanctioned personal attacks, what should one do? Just sit there and take it, even if one could stop it? > The State Department has a thing called "Rewards for Justice" and they talk extensively about the NK problem and how we're being hacked all the time. They pay millions for information. I told them "…

> what should one do? Examine how their own actions were a large part in creating this particular outcome? Then question if they're worth continuing under such circumstances? > No response since. Yea, maybe diplomats should lead the charge, and not self important hackers with a desire to "shut down the internet" in a fit of nerdy rage?

I believe that this was an appropriate level of protest on his part.

The reason that I posted this AMA on HN is that a lot people with influence peruse this website, and it would appear that this person went to intel agencies first, then went to State, and was shut down on all counts. Not just shut down for his personal validation, but shut down as far as potential operations.

I posted this in the hopes that someone with influence would see it, and work to prevent this from ever happening again. This guy tried to go through all the right channels. The US gov failed him, and all Americans, at every level.

Ideally, an intel contact would have responded with: "thanks, I'll make sure that the proper people know about this. Await a reply." Reply: "Please come in... OK yes, we know and will save it for an emergency. Never mention this again. Here is your monetary award, as advertised."

For unknown reasons, that did not occur. After this all happened and got written up in Wired, he is finally getting contact from the appropriate people. Let's not let this go this far in the future.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#148

Post by quickthrowman »

valianteffort wrote: post #134
akira2501 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly. He's creating tools that interest state actors with no real means of defending himself or the tools. If he's that concerned he could just destroy the tools, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. Then, in response to what should have been an obvious outcome to his actions, he commits what should be described as a "crime against humanity" against the entire communications infrastructure of a foreign cou…

Glad someone is saying this. Some obnoxious moron putting countless lives in danger to virtue signal has gotta be a new low on the internet retard scale.

Do you really think Kim is going to nuke Tokyo or Seoul because a US citizen DDOSed their connection to the internet? I find that .. unlikely

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#149

Post by quickthrowman »

influx wrote: post #131
jrexilius wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked with him briefly on another project and he was pretty comfy and open about the whole thing. In fact I think I remember him mentioning doing a talk at a conference about it. He's a genuinely nice guy and fairly laid back about things. NK regime maybe is annoyed with him, but there is an almost zero probability of them being able to do anything other than digital harrassment to him.

Considering they have performed assassinations outside of their soil, I would be slightly concerned.

They assassinated a potential rival for the throne. The situations are not even remotely similar.

Killing a US citizen on US soil would not go down well.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#150

Post by gameman144 »

squigz wrote: post #107
gameman144 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like he went in out of pure malice or anything though, they were trying to hack him first. Not saying it's some morally pristine thing, but it definitely communicated what it was trying to communicate. As an analogy, we should have empathy for homeless people stuck in poverty, but if one of them continually bikes to your house and tries to break in, is it morally dubious to eventually take their bike chain r…

Regarding your analogy: I think it would be more like taking the bikes of every homeless person as opposed to just the one. Would that make it more or less morally dubious?

I don't think it's quite like that, since there's no direct action aiming to antagonize poor North Korean citizens; they are suffering indirectly due to the harm done to the actual target.

In the homeless analogy, maybe the attempted-robber's friends go hungry, since he usually uses the bicycle to go to the grocery store.

To me, I don't imagine this changes the calculus much, since almost any intervention will have side-effects.

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