DoS Attacks on Estonia Were Launched by Student 184
As_I_Please alerts us to the fact that a 20-year-old Estonian student has been fined for participating in DoS attacks against various Estonian political and governmental websites last May. The situation was notable because it escalated tensions between Estonia and Russia when the latter was accused of initiating the 'cyber-attack'. Quoting:
"The fact that a single student was able to trigger such events is particularly ominous when you consider just how many potential flashpoints exist between various countries all over the world. The DoS attack against Estonia is an excellent example of how a cyberattack carried out by a 20-year-old student in response to real-life events further exacerbated an existing problem between two nations."
In Soviet Estonia... (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of Soviet Estonia (Score:1)
Re:Speaking of Soviet Estonia (Score:4, Insightful)
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Given Putin's other sneaky behavior, it seems reasonable to infer that Putin's government may be involved. And even if he's "innocent", who cares? Russia deserves serious sanctions for Putin's other atrocities, so if this is what gets him, GREAT.
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Rigging elections.
The political assassinations of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, as well as numerous other journalists and political opponents.
Mass killings, rape, torture, and other atrocities in Chechnya.
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Elections still pending, so you have to wait a bit before making up your mind.
Which elections are you talking about? I'm talking about the 2004 elections in Russia and Chechnya. Both were pretty obviously rigged.
Have you got any proof ? Besides articles in BBC News, I mean ...
I'll take the BBC over Putin's WORD any day. Alexander Litvinenko was obviously assassinated, in a brazen manner, by the Russian government. Putin refuses to extradite the poisoner.. Officials in his government have claimed that Litvinenko "deserved" to be killed.
The last one, which began with the Chechens attacking Dagestan when Putin was not yet in charge, was at least as clean and at least as humane as the wars more "civilized" countries waged during the last century
Two wrongs don't make a right. Just because the Nazis built concentration camps doesn't mean it's okay for anyo
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Your option b) would be my favourite if there is more to this than there appears, but I remain to be convinced.
Much worse article at News.com (Score:5, Funny)
WTF? A DDOS is a flash mob?
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Re:Much worse article at News.com (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Much worse article at News.com (Score:5, Funny)
flash mob (Score:5, Funny)
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Ack. Thanks for the image.
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Wow, you're right! Your grammar proves it!
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In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
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An exellent example... of what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh. How about the _only_ example?
There's another, I think (Score:4, Interesting)
He was using a TR(A)S(H)-80 from Radio Shack, IIRC. Probably a 1200 baud modem (not even Hayes compatible!), 64K of RAM and a CLI... He was probably a Real Programmer. Sadly I was born in '84, so I don't really remember it happening.
Re:There's another, I think (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There's another, I think (Score:5, Funny)
Where are those easy days ... (Score:2)
Interesting... (Score:2)
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Okay, so it's a fictional example, but it's an example.
bad information. (Score:2)
Sacrifice one student to the great god of world peace.
Russia accused... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not the first time (Score:5, Insightful)
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Say what you want. Thats where it all started.
Re:Not the first time (Score:4, Insightful)
Say what you want. Thats where it all started.
I'm sorry, this is slashdot. Please keep the facts out it, would you? Next you're going to cite the fact that it was Bill Clinton's stated policy to see Saddam removed from power, too.
Re:Not the first time (Score:4, Interesting)
Along with just about everyone else on both sides of the political aisle.
I've noticed that now there's a "study" about all the lies that the Bush administration told about Iraq, back when almost everyone else was apparently telling the same lies, or at least believing them.
There's an excerpt on Yahoo News of an interesting interview from "60 Minutes", with the guy that interrogated Saddam after he was captured. According to this interrogator, Saddam said he didn't believe that Bush would actually order the invasion -- he thought that there would be a few days of air strikes, and it would be over. Saddam survived it when Clinton tried that, and Saddam thought he could survive it again. And he admitted that's why he continued to let everyone believe that he had various weapons of mass destruction.
I always wondered why Saddam behaved like he had something to hide, when he really didn't. I guess he thought the WMD threat would discourage his enemies -- which included most of the Middle East, various Western democracies, and a large percentage of the people in his OWN country.
Re:Not the first time (Score:5, Informative)
'Everybody'? I don't know what planet you where on back then, but most people in Europe didn't buy the theory of a link to Al-Qaeda. Most governments of Europe also wanted the weapons inspections to continue instead of invading.
Personally, I expected an invasion to become the quagmire the current Vice President of USA predicted. And I, along with a lot of people, expected it to only enrich certain oil companies. I even participated in a protest march for this.
M.
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Everybody'? I don't know what planet you where on back then, but most people in Europe didn't buy the theory of a link to Al-Qaeda. Most governments of Europe also wanted the weapons inspections to continue instead of invading.
I was referring to the existence of WMD, not the link to Al-Qaeda. I also thought the latter was dubious. But in the US, there were very few high-ranking politicians that opposed the former -- including some that are running for President now and are claiming otherwise.
You have to remember: the "governments of Europe" aren't considered to be credible in US politics, just as I doubt the the US government is respected in European politics.
Personally, I expected an invasion to become the quagmire the current Vice President of USA predicted.
So did I. Earlier, someone posted a brief history of the
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I have a read an explanation over at The Strategy Page [strategypage.com]. For him, it was a bluffing to win at two fronts. Iraq and everything west of it is Arab, at the east you have Iran. Arabs live in fear of the Persians. This dates back more than three thousand year.
Having his war at the beginning of the eighties with Iran gained him much respect in the Arabic world, because he stood up to them. The bluff with the WMDs was in the same category, it was to scare off the Iranians and give confidence to the Arab world that
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Probably not. (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words, there is no meaningful "first", unless you want to go back around 10,000 years. Almost everything that happened after that point was in direct retribution to what had happened before. That's one reason it will take a lot of effort to calm the region down - ten thousand years is a long time to build up grdudges and resentments -- and don't think a single one of them has been forgotten.
Getting back to the main topic, just as an aside, this is why societies can't survive for very long on a diet of paranoia, fear and resentment. Sooner or later, you'll get people who hate each other less than they hate some imagined collective enemy, and the shit will hit the fan at a speed approaching mach 2. I'm surprised that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often - students get an even rawer deal than most, even at the best of times, naturally form into groups, and generally have significant combined intellect and skills. This is probably the worst group to infuriate and should really be the first group to focus on getting support from.
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Minor correction (Score:2)
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But if you're talking about modern events only,
Re:Russia accused... (Score:4, Informative)
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Maybe if you would knew a bit of that situation you wouldn't say that. Because the one who got caught was also an ethnic Russian. Born in Estonia to Russian parents.
Ah, I see. This, of course, proves beyond any doubt that he was a sleeper agent planted in Estonia by the KGB. Also, it is a well-known fact that every ethnic Russian is directly controlled by the Russian government anyway.
And he said he got the idea from various blogs and forum posts which called people to attack Estonian servers. These blogs and forums were in Russian servers.
Right. It is safe to assume that this entirely non-obvious idea was planted on those blogs by Russian secret services. Only their weird minds could have conceived of something like that.
Besides the IP addresses showed the majority of the attacks to be from Russia. The guy in Estonia was just easier to arrest.
I sincerely hope that the valiant Estonian government will ultimately manage to get them all. As a f
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...perhaps as many as one million slave computers in places as far away as North America and the Far East -- to amplify the impact of their assault. In a sign of their financial resources, there is evidence that they rented time from trans-national criminal syndicates on Botnets.
Even more, the Russian secret service didn't need to be involved in it, all they needed to do is accuse the Estonians in a major newspaper and the people who had the knowledge and resources would act themselves.
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http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/frameset.php?pageid=http%3A//www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/press/300507.php
Who or what is mi2g? What credentials do they have beyond a dubious website?
Even more, the Russian secret service didn't need to be involved in it, all they needed to do is accuse the Estonians in a major newspaper and the people who had the knowledge and resources would act themselves.
Are you saying that the terrible Russian attack on Estonia was actually an accusation in a major newspaper? That's all?
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Blame the geek (Score:1)
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So on what basis did Estonia accuse Russia of staging those attacks?
Because they did!
... in affected area (IT department and under fire) :)
...
I'm an Estonian and at the time worked
The pressure and agitations have been going on for years, it just was the first successful attempt. The removal of the statue was decided precisely for the reason to lessen the attack ground in the long run.
Now, the article
* Dmitri Galushkevich is not an Estonian name (just in case anyone wonders).
* He lived in Estonia and was therefore the only one so far that could be dragged to the courtroom
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Although there is no proof that it was a Kremlin sanctioned attack (see: Politkovskaya) there is little doubt here that it was. But the thing is that when we say it was the Russians who did it, we don't always mean the Kremlin. What we mean is the Russian people, the people who are a bit crazy in their interpretation of history saying that Estonia was "liberated" by the Russians and other nonsense. These are the people who rioted in April. These ar
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Becuase *other* attacks provably originated from IP addresses within a bank allocated to Russian government agencies.
This *one* conviction does not account for all the pathetic Russian cyberattacks on the entire country of Estonia.
The historical background. (Score:2, Informative)
During WW2, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbintrop pact, which carved up eastern Europe between Stalin and Hitler. Hitler later reneged, and invaded the area assigned to Stalin, taking over the Baltic States (Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania). The Russians later retook Eastern Europe, and re-occupied the Baltics. They didn't leave until the early 90s. Many Russians resettled i
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Not Acting Alone (Score:5, Insightful)
While they may not have found evidence of any other people involved, it's unlikely that a single person could establish a botnet large enough to overwhelm anything on his own. The only answer I can think of is education - botnets exist because the owners of the zombie PCs simply don't recognize that it's a zombie. There is certainly an overall lack of regulation, too. As a domain owner, I see lots of abusive traffic and have absolutely no legal recourse to punish a perpetrator. Responsible network owners often help, but there's so few networks that are responsible that I usually assume they're not, forcing me to do what little I can at my own site to prevent further abuse.
For the student's part, he was only fined (I couldn't find how much in TFA). Not much deterrent to prevent him from doing it again. No leverage to find out who he was working with. The lack of clear laws in any country makes prosecution of such actions impossible. As a domain owner, I'd like to see civilized countries show some direction toward making prosecution of such activities a reality. Until then, it's "you hack me, I hack you" which is completely counterproductive.
Re:Not Acting Alone (Score:4, Insightful)
I disagree. He wouldn't necessarily have to do anything to build a botnet himself, just have access to a C&C network built by someone else. He could gain access by renting the network, or even stumbling on an unprotected C&C server. There's a few out there, believe it or not. So yeah, other people may have created the botnet, but he still could have been acting alone when launching his attack.
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You mean to tell me there is no way for a network admin to tell when a computer on their network is an infected botnet drone? I claim poppycock on that. Comcast and others for example detect BT networks enough to disrupt them why can't they do the same for the botnets? Oh, their isn't a threat of lawsuit in botnets....I see...
I, and anyone familiar with the BT protocol, can describe how to detect the BT protocol.
Would you mind sharing with us the 'botnet' protocol?
I realize there is no botnet protocol, but actually hundreds (or thousands) of them, each different, for one type of botnet drone software. These also change, in that new ones are introduced, and old ones updated. I realize that, and hope you see it now too.
What exact type of traffic are you claiming can be detected?
The 10 or 20 packets sent once that went towards t
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And just to be sure to remove all command channels there could be, you should get rid of irc, aim, hell all IM, email, the web, ftp, and most importaint, have the ISPs block ALL inbound ports, and block all outbound.
That will solve the problem, but noone will be here to enjoy it.
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For the student's part, he was only fined (I couldn't find how much in TFA)
He was fined ~1500$ (same as maximum fine for drunken driving). He wasn't event expelled from uni for that.
Not much deterrent to prevent him from doing it again
In one interview he claimed that He felt like the act wasn't really a crime (he didn't kill anybody, did he). He (and many others) did it because many internet sites recommended doing it. Those sites were put up by main organizers of riots. Main organizers themselves are currently prosecuted
The War on Cyber-Warfare (Score:5, Interesting)
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Save us a hundred years of time wasted on passing laws. We know it will end up there anyway, just do it already.
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You know something? The world does does revolve around the american people and their whims.
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oh come on (Score:1, Funny)
Free kevin
Obligatory Soviet Russia Jokes Thread (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, you attack Estonia!
What do you guys got?
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In Soviet Russia, computers hack YOU!
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Whoops, did I do it wrong?
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In Estonia, students hack you! (Score:3, Funny)
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In Russia you always fight people that are not in your weight category.
In Russia you are the bully.
Estonia is not fighting Soviet Russia. It is fighting imperial ambitions of Russian Federation. These ambitions are continuously fueled in Russian media. How many jokes Russians have about conflicts with Georgia or Estonia? If you know Russian, find Zadornov new year's show for 2008. Russians occupied independent countries for more than half of century and expect people of those cou
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Re:Obligatory Soviet Russia Jokes Thread (Score:5, Funny)
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(Horribly weak Encino Man [imdb.com] reference, I apologize.)
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"this 'proving they're loyal' crap" is exactly what is happening now: you raise up some hell, then have your subjects choose sides. There is no other way anybody can "prove" loyalty to anything. Unfortunately for the Estonians t
Re:The guy is Russianxz (Score:2)
I may be wrong, but I seem to recall something about how all residents of Estonia who before the formal declaration of independence formally supported the then-illegal independence movement (e.g. by joining the pro-independence
Cue the Hollywood self-adulation... (Score:2)
Recent attacks on US DoD 'puters, "from China" (Score:1)
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/17/1936236 [slashdot.org]
And even if not, maybe national security information doesn't belong on public networks, including the Internet. Just a thought.
Well (Score:2)
Headline *very* misleading! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Headline *very* misleading! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Would I be really American?
Two words (Score:1)
You know what would be funny? (Score:2, Funny)
Just as I said (Score:3, Insightful)
What A Crock (Score:4, Insightful)
What nonsense. If governments put important messages on such "secure" places as roadside billboards, for example, then they should expect "hacks" like moustaches drawn on them, etc.
Others are not to blame if the government is clueless. The fact that it was so easy to do is a great indication that the government was in fact clueless. If they want to put something important somewhere and keep it "secure", then they are responsible for taking at least minimal measures to make sure that it is, in fact, secure.
They are just looking for someone to blame for their own incompetence.
Giving weapons to the irresponsible (Score:2, Flamebait)
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Young unmarried men. People who have a family to worry about are a lot less likely to do something stupid than the ones who don't, and of course it also helps to have an outlet for those surging hormones. That's one of the reasons why most ancient societies advocated marrying young, and why a married couple is sometimes still considered the basic building block of the society.
The best way to keep people from doing stupid things is to make sure that
Correction accepted (Score:2)
I remember all too well one of our apprentices who had what I can only describe as a remarkable car at the age of 21. How he afforded the insurance I have no idea. Then for some reason a remarkably attractive girl took a fancy to him. Six months later he was presented with an ultimatum, and a week later he turned up for work in a Renault Clio.
The power of love. And sex...from what I heard from the other apprentices, lots and lots of sex.
Is this meant to be disagreement? (Score:2)
It is also true that a lot of creativity comes from the young, especially in mathematics and the
Possible motivation for the attacks (Score:2)
I'm curious about all these racist/Ron Paul posts (Score:1, Insightful)
Are racists all illiterate?? I thought that was just a myth...
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