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Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

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Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#71

Post by criley2 »

Forbo wrote: post #52
spacefight wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the question is, why is Google not shutting them down now.

Have they taken any action that would be cause for a shutdown? Does Google not allow you to run Tor relays on their service? Genuine questions, I'm not familiar enough with the service.

Stolen credit cards is probably high on the list.

You'd think Google wouldn't want to give away free computer resources to these 'hackers' since the banks will almost assuredly take back any mis-gotten money from stolen credit cards.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#72

Post by abritishguy »

abqio wrote: post #37
abritishguy wrote: post #35

They appear to be using Google Compute instances (based upon the IP addresses) to create TOR relays but since they are not exit nodes I'm not really sure what they are hoping to achieve.

They're set up to be exit nodes, they just don't have the exit flag yet.

And without that flag they might as well not be exit nodes - it takes 88 days to be approved.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#73

Post by r00fus »

comex wrote: post #9

It's unfortunate that they're attacking Tor, but at least this type of attacks is being demonstrated now by someone presumably only out for lulz, rather than potentially by more malicious entities in the future.

How do you honestly know that? Everything can be pseudonymous or anonymous and behind several layers of indirections. Real names could be used so dox-ing can reveal "something" but in effect could simply be a steganographic ruse.

Given the resources of large intelligence operations funded worldwide, would can you be sure one or more aren't really behind Lizard (or LulzSec or Anonymous even)?

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#74

Post by Karunamon »

sanswork wrote: post #66
yedpodtrzitko wrote: post #63

This isn't Fox News, can we call the things correctly, thus "crackers" in this case, pls?

The crackers instead of hackers war was lost 15 years ago.

So we just stop all use of correct language because of defeatism? Nonsense.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#75

Post by AnthonyMouse »

anigbrowl wrote: post #56
simias wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't usually care for the meaning of "hacker" (tinkerer or pirate) but in this case calling them "hacker", even in the mainstream meaning of the word is giving them too much credit. They're not hacking anything any more that 4chan users "hack" websites by flooding them, there's no "hack" involved in any meaning of the word. I'm sure they love being called "hackers" by the media. So yeah, I'm definitely in favor of…

Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments. DDOSing and Botnet attacks are crude, brute-force attacks, but finesse has never been a requirement for a good hack - it's the icing on the cake but ultimately it's the result that matters. Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a…

> Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments.

They really aren't.

> Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a mass shooting incident.

Words matter. If some fools are caught with a Molotov cocktail and the media starts reporting that they had a "nuclear weapon" because gasoline contains some radioactive carbon-14, the sane people are the ones telling anyone who will listen how stupid that is.

Calling those who maliciously break shit "hackers" is like calling those who drink too much "Irishmen." It's an offensive misuse of the word.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#76

Post by JoeAltmaier »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #75
anigbrowl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments. DDOSing and Botnet attacks are crude, brute-force attacks, but finesse has never been a requirement for a good hack - it's the icing on the cake but ultimately it's the result that matters. Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a…

> Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments. They really aren't. > Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a mass shooting incident. Words matter. If some fools are caught with a Molotov cocktail and the media starts reporting that they had a "nuclear weapon" because gasoli…

I'm old enough to remember when 'hacker' meant exactly that. Now its hip to be called a hacker; does that change its meaning? What does it mean to be a 'gangsta'?

Languages change. That doesn't mean its offensive when somebody still uses the old meaning, because its how they grew up using it.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#77

Post by itsame »

higherpurpose wrote: post #55
chc wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a chance to inject Mega's name into a big story. Before, the story was "Hackers steal Christmas." Now, the story is "Mega saves Christmas." Also, he probably wanted to play some video games and it's not like Mega vouchers cost him all that much, particularly considering this is basically an advertising expense.

New headline: Mega Helps Destroy Tor Network Seriously, he just ended up passing the hot potato to someone else. That someone else is now Tor. I think I would've preferred to let Microsoft deal with the DDoS (they have the means). Giving in to criminals's demands really ends up making things worse in the long term, whether it's bank robbers, CryptoLocker creators or the owners of botnets that can DDOS sites.

You say that as if these guys wouldn't have touched Tor if Kim Dotcom didn't intervene. This is just what they do, whether or not they were given the vouchers. If not today, eventually they would probably have set their sights on Tor anyhow.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#78

Post by AlyssaRowan »

ChristianBundy wrote: post #61
mperret wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a few seem to have the exit flag now. Only glanced through the first 500 or so, but it looked to be about 50 which had the exit flag

How is that possible? I was under the impression that it took a long time to be a real exit node.

No stable flags. No guard flags, either.

Google will probably shut them down quicker than the consensus gives them those. They are tiny; it's an attempted Sybil, but it's worse than GCHQ's one that used Amazon nodes.

Edit: Down.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#79

Post by dangayle »

simias wrote: post #44
jacquesm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling them script kiddies is not productive either. They're hackers by the now commonly accepted definition as used in the media. That ship sailed ages ago, but if you want to bicker about what to call them the correct term is probably something along the lines of cyber criminals.

I don't usually care for the meaning of "hacker" (tinkerer or pirate) but in this case calling them "hacker", even in the mainstream meaning of the word is giving them too much credit. They're not hacking anything any more that 4chan users "hack" websites by flooding them, there's no "hack" involved in any meaning of the word. I'm sure they love being called "hackers" by the media. So yeah, I'm definitely in favor of…

I tried to tell a group of friends yesterday that the N Korean internet could have been brought down by script kiddies. When asked what that meant, I said "hackers" and everyone shook their head in agreement and said "ahh, hackers."

Hackers is just a generic term these days, no use getting upset about it.

Re: Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor

#80

Post by gburt »

s_q_b wrote: post #68

They're trying a correlation attack on the network. Create enough entries and exits, then matching traffic by time, size, and shape.

Do you know this? It seems obvious to me, but calling it a "0day" suggests that maybe the attack is (at least marginally) more sophisticated than the obvious correlation attack. Not to mention, as far as I can see, we have no idea.
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