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Author Topic: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?  (Read 4949 times)

Tinman57

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DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« on: February 26, 2013, 08:01 PM »

DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate form of protest?
 
Some people seem to think that distributed denial of service attacks can be justified morally or ethically. Read this analysis to find out if that claim is supported or thoroughly debunked.
 

http://www.zdnet.com...f-protest-7000011845

Renegade

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2013, 08:21 PM »
The author barely pretends to address the issue. He's merely screaming that DDoS is criminal. He's a douche.

There is no room for prevarication. A distributed denial of service attack is criminal and may well be a terrorist attack. There is no high ground here. If you participate in a DDoS attack, you're either a criminal or a terrorist...and a fool.


Yeah... DDoS is "terrorism". Ridiculous. In the extreme. The guy is an idiot and just posting for absurd shock value. It's typical tabloid journalism. Tomorrow he'll post about bat-baby vampires drinking the blood of children raised by werewolves in Atlantis.

While hijacking thousands of computers for a DDoS is one thing, it's a very different thing to yell out to a crowd of people, "Hey, let's all visit somerandomwebsitedotcom tomorrow at high noon," and then laugh as the site goes down.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker
« Last Edit: March 01, 2013, 12:02 AM by mouser, Reason: edited link »

40hz

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2013, 08:59 PM »
"It's only funny until somebody loses an eye."  :P

Renegade

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2013, 09:26 PM »
"It's only funny until somebody loses an eye."  :P

The correct answer, as with all things in IT, is, "It depends."

DDoS by a foreign military is an act of war.
DDoS by a violent, paramilitary religio-political/whatever organization is resistance/terrorism, and it all depends on what side of the fence you're on.

Killing people is murder? We don't call it that when it's self-defense.

It all depends... And the author isn't remotely interested in addressing anything except to dismiss or trivialize anything that doesn't scream "criminal" or "terrorism". He's a flake.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Tinman57

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Hello Kitty of Hacktivism
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2013, 07:32 PM »

Beware! Anonymous has become the Hello Kitty of hacktivism

If you think hacktivists are a problem now, just wait. The tools are becoming increasingly easy to use, and the hacktivists increasingly stupid — making everyone a target.

http://www.zdnet.com...acktivism-7000012069

TaoPhoenix

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2013, 11:51 PM »
Or maybe the Harry Potter or Pokemon of Activism.


Tinman57

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2013, 05:56 PM »
Or maybe the Harry Potter or Pokemon of Activism.

   ;D  The main problem that I can see is "Who decides who needs to be targeted and for what".  People are so diverse, obviously.  One person or group loves X and hates Y, and the other group or person hates X and loves Y.  It's a double-edged sword when it comes to the attack of different ideological thinking.  So who gets to decide what's right or wrong?

Renegade

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2013, 06:34 PM »
So who gets to decide what's right or wrong?

I'll reply in the basement.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 06:43 PM by Renegade, Reason: added link »

SeraphimLabs

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Re: DDoS: Terrorism or legitimate?
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2013, 11:55 AM »
Funny that you'd call it terrorism actually. I could see where it would be treated as that. Certainly wouldn't make it any easier to stop- it still is very difficult to figure out who was behind it and bring them to justice unless they are sloppy or confess.

Actual DDoSing is done maliciously, for the sole purpose of disrupting normal services. It usually comes with a high price tag for the victim due to bandwidth overages and lost profits due to the downtime- and having been shot at before there I can honestly say it's a horrible feeling and an unexpectedly large bill that can reach bank breaking levels. Typically DDoSing relies on a botnet, but it has also been possible by distributing malicious software for end users to voluntarily participate by using. A good example of this is the infamous LOIC, which has a long history with Anonymous for making websites dissappear.

Now making hype enough to get a whole bunch of people to visit a site, that's not at all malicious. Such is typical of the so-called slashdot effect, capable of throwing a DDoS-like flood of traffic known to cripple unsuspecting servers. That's completely okay, and only happens when someone ends up unexpectedly popular. Online protesting would fall into this category, as actual people are all actively there visiting a site near-simultaneously to view its content or contribute their opinions. If the server fails under the load, then the operator was unprepared for the public response.

Attacking a site by DDoS also usually affects other sites near it as well. There are far more permanent ways to take down a site than to simply attack it, most of them relying on legal procedures. And I honestly can think of very few reasons where a DDoS might be considered a legitimate course of action. If it's illegal let the lawyers do their thing. If it's legal, sorry they have as much of a right to have it as you have to hate them for it.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2013, 12:02 PM by SeraphimLabs »