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DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

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Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#51

Post by shandor »

ge0rg wrote: post #14
zmb_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is bad reporting. The systems in question were used as a part of launching a DDoS attack, they were not the target of the attack. The high load then caused the systems to crash repeatedly.

Do you have a better source for that? In the article it rather reads like the control system was at the receiving end: The systems that were attacked tried to respond to the attack by rebooting the main control circuit.

Officials reported (sorry, no link) that they had "heavy reasons" to think that the attack was

1) done by actual criminals 2) pointed elsewhere, and the heating system was just one of the many systems used to initiate the attack.

They weren't more specific as to who attacked and who was the actual intended victim, but they were pretty sure the heatimg systems going down was just collateral.

Welcome to the Internet of Shit.

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#52

Post by EugeneOZ »

geoka9 wrote: post #49
EugeneOZ wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. Do not read Soviet newspapers until dinner. It's not "just me". Looks like you get your information from news portals which nobody read in Russia because they are owned by government.

The Russian military has been skirting/violating the Finnish airspace lately. It's in the (Western) news.

They are violating somebody's airspace every week, nobody cares. It's just political games of the current moment, it's not whole nation's decisions. Or you think we call referendum before each airspace trespassing?

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#53

Post by EugeneOZ »

strictnein wrote: post #41
saucetenuto wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we like them and we prefer to be friends with them. How true is this? Every Finnish person I've ever met has mistrusted and feared Russia.

Worked for a Finnish company and I concur. They frequently bring up how they beat the Germans and the Russians in WW2. And how Finnish vodka is the best. And how it sucks that the world's most popular sauna heater is made in Sweden, because Finnish sauna heaters are superior.

Well, it doesn't prove that russians don't like Finns, maybe just Finns don't like russians. Sad to hear, but, looks like our government's propaganda works. And Finnish vodka is really the best ;)

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#54

Post by EugeneOZ »

cryptarch wrote: post #30
saucetenuto wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we like them and we prefer to be friends with them. How true is this? Every Finnish person I've ever met has mistrusted and feared Russia.

Perhaps the difference is between "Russia the state" and "citizens of Russia"? Especially when they're almost neighbors, when you live near the border, I don't see why you'd fear any random Russian citizen just because they live in Russia. I'd be quite interested in their perspective on world politics. My impression is that Russia has a lot of propaganda and filtering of the media, and I assume it has a different cha…

Just as illustration: after November 8 a lot of russians were celebrating - just because of hope that relations with US will be warmer. Really, people don't want cold war or any other war.

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#56

Post by rconti »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #54
cryptarch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the difference is between "Russia the state" and "citizens of Russia"? Especially when they're almost neighbors, when you live near the border, I don't see why you'd fear any random Russian citizen just because they live in Russia. I'd be quite interested in their perspective on world politics. My impression is that Russia has a lot of propaganda and filtering of the media, and I assume it has a different cha…

Just as illustration: after November 8 a lot of russians were celebrating - just because of hope that relations with US will be warmer. Really, people don't want cold war or any other war.

Warmer and on their terms; attempts to have closer relations without Putin, and with other US leaders seem to have both been less well-received.

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#57

Post by walshemj »

mrweasel wrote: post #17

Regardless of the reason, deliberate targetting, accidental "drive by DDoS" or bad configuration, the question that remains is "Why is the heating dependent on being online?" It is completely reasonable if the heat system every so often "phones home", so report on usage, but it shouldn't actually stop working, if the network connection isn't available. You can blame, DDoS, hackers, network outages, the Russians, I do…

Grossly incompetent not just stupid people could have died.

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#58

Post by digi_owl »

reitanqild wrote: post #50
geoka9 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys were lucky Russia didn't roll over Finland in 1939. You'd probably be next in line, right after Sweden.

Maybe yes. That's why we try to be friends and we continue to be part of NATO

And now apparently there will be some 300 US Marines stationed on Norwegian soil. Something that didn't happen even at the height of the cold war...

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#59

Post by geoka9 »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #52
geoka9 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Russian military has been skirting/violating the Finnish airspace lately. It's in the (Western) news.

They are violating somebody's airspace every week, nobody cares. It's just political games of the current moment, it's not whole nation's decisions. Or you think we call referendum before each airspace trespassing?

I guess when Russia tried to invade them back in 1939 there was no referendum and it wasn't a whole nation's decision either. Heck, you could even deem the Russian people friendly towards the Finns (they were trying to free their Finnish comrades from the capitalist yoke!). I don't think it made the Finns any happier though.

What I CAN see is the glee on the Russian discussion boards whenever an incident like that is mentioned in the news. It's either that or outright denial blaming the Finns (British, Estonians, etc.) for making these claims up out of "russophobia".

Re: DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter

#60

Post by schlowmo »

philfrasty wrote: post #55

There is a great book with this exact topic called „Blackout“ by Marc Elsberg. Highly recommend! Edit: Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FCQLSPC

[little spoiler warning]

I wouldn't call it "this exact topic", since the primary attack vector in the story are smart meters, but still can second your recommendation. The book is highly based on a study founded by the german government[0], analyzing the outcome of a great scale blackout. The study is also worth reading, unfortunately only a german version is available.

[0] http://www.tab-beim-bundestag.de/de/untersuchungen/u137.html

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