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Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

blog.achernya.com

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Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#71

Post by jamesjporter »

Permit wrote: post #62
wavesounds wrote: post #55

To me this feels a bit like a lunch counter cook complaining all these black people showing up in his restaurant are causing him extra work. The whole point of a protest is to put pressure on the system your trying to change. Start a walkout/go on strike if you dont want to deal with the problems the organization you're working for caused. The school only gets power from its students. Without the students there is no…

>To me this feels a bit like a lunch counter cook complaining all these black people showing up in his restaurant are causing him extra work. Are black people notorious for eating or something? That kind of came out of left field, there.

He's analogizing DDoS attacks to the lunch counter sit ins that were used as a means of nonviolent protest during the civil right movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#72

Post by jeremyis »

armored_mammal wrote: post #38

If the students have failed to vehemently distance themselves and protest to the administration, or even quit MIT for somewhere else, then they are just as guilty. Their attendance abets the status quo. Especially since it's a private university. Quit whining.

Does this mean Americans that haven't protested or denounced their citizenship are just as guilty for the sometimes awful things the American government does?

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#73

Post by wavesounds »

gojomo wrote: post #45

As I'd mentioned on an earlier submission about W3C's site being inaccessible: A cool thing about Aaron's activism was that it involved building things, circumventing censorship, and spreading information, rather than sabotage and denial-of-service.

Its not black and white. Sure Aaron built things but he also threatened to destroy JSTOR's business model. Likewise a DDoS may seem destructive but if it causes MIT to have better Ethics and Leadership as a result then its well worth the discomfort. If theres a bug in your system you sometimes have to replace some lines of code to make it better, this isn't destruction its just change.

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#74

Post by wonnage »

Permit wrote: post #67
leepowers wrote: post #54

My guess is someone wants to "send a message" to MIT and so they're attacking the most vulnerable, most exploitable part of MIT's infrastructure: a non-critical system run by student volunteers. I doubt it's anything personal against Alex or other MIT students. Imagine if a thousand members of Anonymous staged a non-violent protest at MIT, marching across campus. This would inconvenience some students, possibly even…

Why is it perfectly acceptable to inconvenience people from their studies? Man, this kind of attitude makes me want to encourage harsher penalties on people who pull this bullshit. You do your movement no favours when you inconvenience the same people you want on your side.

You must not live in the US, as we have freedom of assembly here

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#75

Post by Permit »

armored_mammal wrote: post #38

If the students have failed to vehemently distance themselves and protest to the administration, or even quit MIT for somewhere else, then they are just as guilty. Their attendance abets the status quo. Especially since it's a private university. Quit whining.

>Quit whining.

What an excellent way to win the hearts and minds of the MIT student body. Congratulations you've managed to belittle and alienate the same people you'd want on your side!

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#76

Post by Permit »

wonnage wrote: post #74
Permit wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it perfectly acceptable to inconvenience people from their studies? Man, this kind of attitude makes me want to encourage harsher penalties on people who pull this bullshit. You do your movement no favours when you inconvenience the same people you want on your side.

You must not live in the US, as we have freedom of assembly here

Just don't expect sympathy from anyone you've inconvenienced when that right is infringed upon.

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#77

Post by darkarmani »

hnriot wrote: post #65
darkarmani wrote: post #29

Please let me read your blog page without needed to turn on lots of javascript. The page is blank without whitelisting JS content.

This is as expected. If you want to disable the browser, you should a blank page. Javascript is as much a part of web content as html. If you're worried about security, run Linux or OSX as your operating system.

Wow! That is not a comment I expected from HN.

You do know that Java7 (also part of the web) has a cross-platform 0day exploit. Your OS will not save you here (layered defense might help though).

Something as inelegant as click-jacking will not be prevented by your silver-bullet OS of choice, either.

> Javascript is as much a part of web content as html.

Why is javascript required to see content for a simple blog page?

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#78

Post by mappu »

paupino_masano wrote: post #3

I'm just getting a blank page - is that what others are seeing?

Yep, totally blank page. JS enabled, no plugins, no caching, Chrome Beta 24 from New Zealand. All HTML loads fine.

There's an uncaught TypeError in common.js:40 (looks like jQuery.browser isn't getting defined?) which seems to cause the blogger object to not be created, breaking classic.js and gadgets.js nearly immediately.

Ridiculous

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#79

Post by thematt »

chc wrote: post #59
mixmastamyk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been hundreds (thousands?) of javascript exploits. Javascript is also a major component in user tracking. Go to a news site and you'll see a dozen trackers most likely against your wishes, reducing privacy and performance. It's a hostile internet out there. Hostile images may exist but they are an order of mag. or two less common of a threat. Of course, where to draw the line is subjective, but the idea th…

Can you link to a recent (for any reasonable value of the word) remote code execution vulnerability with JavaScript? Because my observation has been that RCE through codecs has been a much bigger vector for compromised systems.

Why does it have to be specifically RCE? Here are some lists of Firefox's and Chrome (fixed) security vulnerabilities. Browse the lists and you'll find plenty of critical issues related to Javascript.

http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefo...

http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2009/08/stable-upda...

Re: Please Stop Attacking MIT's Network

#80

Post by sethist »

wonnage wrote: post #74
Permit wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it perfectly acceptable to inconvenience people from their studies? Man, this kind of attitude makes me want to encourage harsher penalties on people who pull this bullshit. You do your movement no favours when you inconvenience the same people you want on your side.

You must not live in the US, as we have freedom of assembly here

There seems to be a common misunderstanding of what protest rights you have in the US. The first amendment does not give you the right to protest anything, at any point, in any manner that you want. In fact, the government has a duty to protect my rights if your protest in infringing on them. The Occupy movement is another group that completely failed to understand that fact. You are legally allowed to protest, but preventing someone from going to work or class is a quick way to get your protest shutdown. I don't think it is unreasonable to extend that same logic to DDoS attacks.
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