Downloads of DoS Attack Tool LOIC Spike 267
wiredmikey writes "As Anonymous initiated what it said will be the 'largest attack ever on government and music industry sites' in response to actions taken by the Justice Department against operators of file sharing site Megaupload.com, downloads of a popular DoS attack tool have spiked. While the Denial of Service tool known as the 'Low Orbit Ion Cannon' (LOIC) was developed by the 'good guys' to stress test websites, it has been a favorite tool of Anonymous to take its targets offline via denial of service attacks. Interactions seen on Twitter and IRC, made it clear that the action against MegaUpload has sparked many more individuals to get involved in the online protests and download the LOIC to take part in the attacks and has resulted in a massive spike in downloads according Slashdot sister site Sourceforge."
Re:Those downloading LOIC... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if it is all people from outside of the USA? and I wonder if America would have any luck extraditing thousands of people for a single crime.
I don't imagine that anyone non anonymously doing this in America really has a chance to get off easily. Something like this they are likely going to classify as terrorism.
Really? Sourceforge is hosting DoS tools? (Score:0, Interesting)
William M. Sams in handcuffs. Thats something you don't see every day.
Richard Stalman created worse: WGET. (Score:2, Interesting)
wget has got to be the Tourist tool of the century of all the Brobots in 4Chon.net's R9K1.
Taking pictures and leaving footprints (Chuck Norris style).
Nothing to see here, move along.
Re:And now script kiddies everywhere (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh... not all black males in the U.S. are incarcerated at any point in their lives. Therefore, by definition there cannot be an average age at which that occurs. Did you fail 7th grade math, perchance?
The Sheep’s Mere Sheep (Score:5, Interesting)
... easily dispersed should you strike the shepherd.
Politicians, DoJ, even the RIAA and MPAA, these are mere sheep. Willing scapegoats, but immortal. You cannot destroy them. You must strike at the human minds behind.
Take away the anonymity of the directors of the copyright owning corporations behind this. Expose their secrets. Illuminate their crimes. Dissolve their privacy, pull back the veil behind which they destroy human rights. Ruin their lives. Then tell them why. Tell the world why. Let them be a lesson.
Do not be fooled into thinking your government is against you. Once educated, they will be your greatest ally. But they have been deceived. Strike at the heart of the corruption, not a symptom of it.
Time for the net-neutrality 'activist plugin' (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got an idea, but I don't develop/code software.... someone please run with this....
Make a plugin for browsers that denies or blocks access to sites for companies that are actively pushing to destroy net neutrality. Like most blacklists, they are maintained by a source that tries to keep up to date, and upon whom the subscribers bestow trust (that the sites are indeed pushing against net neutrality).
A few ideas...
1) Block site, and reference evidence as to why.
2) Offer option to continue to the site (lets say you've got to pay your ATT bill online or something, but you like the filter for most other reasons but were forced to choose ATT for an ISP thanks to oligopoly).
3) Link to donations for EFF or other pro-net-neutrality activism groups?
Anyway.. I feel like something like this, if produced well, and promoted, would catch the eye of even the layman who may be interested, and want to be supportive, but may not actively follow the unfolding drama around the topic... The outcry against SOPA/PIPA clearly grabbed the attention of many who are politically inept or disinterested, and they motivated well. It would be nice to see a plugin like this spread with public support.
Re:Those downloading LOIC... (Score:3, Interesting)
So?
Let's say, for arguments sake, 100,000 people download it in the US and use it against the websites currently being hit by Anon. in response to the MegaUpload takedown. Are the authorities really gonna charge 100,000 people with DDoS or whatever the equivalent crime on the books is, most likely kids mind you, and drag them into court? I would LOVE to see that happen, and the resulting reaction from the Internet community, and Anonymous. Please, law enforcement agencies, and DOJ. PLEASE, do that!
They know full well they aren't going to flood the court system with that many fresh cases that ambulance chasers would LOVE to make a name for themselves on pro bono.
Re:They're fools if they're not behind 7 proxies (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't destroy. Create.
Don't destroy. Create.
You need to be sending that message to the people sitting in government and industry, and NOT to a bunch of freedom loving, disenfranchised geeks.
Unfortunately when you are dealing with a bully the only way to stop them is to fight back. The day of protest only delayed the inevitable. And all those things that you are talking about; bitcoin and proxies, can just as easily be destroyed by the copyright lobby as all those things proposed by SOPA and PIPA.
Government and industry are so far being much more aggressive and are doing a lot more damage to the Internet than Anonymous. The major difference is that Anonymous at least believe that they are doing the right thing.
Ineffective, as recent history shows (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, let's go back to working within the system because that has worked so well in the recent past.
Have you been paying the slightest bit of attention?
Do you honestly believe that educating the government will work when the entire SOPA blackout didn't?
All attempts at working within the system have failed. It's time to try other avenues.
Anonymous has chosen to promote change in their own way. It may work, it may not... but at least it has the *possibility* of working. We now know for certain that all the "right" ways will fail.
Perhaps someone should come up with a system similar to kickstarter, where people can donate money to fund the opponent of congressmen they don't like.
Lamar Smith introduced SOPA and is coming up for reelection this year (I think). Perhaps people should pledge money to a fund which will be given to his opponent, as a response.
Perhaps someone should start a super-PAC org and take donations to air ads against him.
There are lots of other things we could do - we just need some creativity.
Re:I took a LOIC in the ass (Score:5, Interesting)
And linux naming strikes again...
Seriously, that's just bad luck. Half a page after the "script kiddie anti-defamation league" starts a mini-flamewar, and you go and point out that the linux version of the tool has a name that can be easily parsed as "Low IQ?"
Yeesh. You can't make this stuff up. :)
Re:Is it worth a year in a hellhole? (Score:4, Interesting)
you would have to prove that the browser user was deliberately participating rather than innocently exploited while viewing a completely innocent page
Not really. A school teacher was convicted due to a classroom computer being infected before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Connecticut_v._Julie_Amero [wikipedia.org]
Re:Perhaps the mistake is ignoring the warning sho (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact is that it is (or was) illegal to hold one person legally responsible for the actions of others
I'm going to have to call bullshit on this. If you pay a hitman to kill someone, you also go down for a crime; sometimes murder; sometimes conspiracy. If you go along on a crime in the US (e.g. a housebreaking) where someone gets killed, even if you weren't directly involved, then they charge you with murder. If you are a mafia boss and they prove you ordered a drugs transport, they do you as a drugs dealer.
In this particular case, the police seem to have made very sure that they have evidence of inducement; there are tape recordings of the megaupload people discussing that they want to encourage copyright infringement. There is evidence of the people at megaupload using database searches for copyright material etc. etc. Now, I don't take what the police say at 100% face value, but you should be very aware that it's likely that they have deliberately made sure that they have proof of every stage needed to make you look very foolish. They have laid a trap and claiming that these people are innocent becuase they can't prove inducement to unlicensed copying is falling into that trap.
The members of Megaupload are innocent for another reason. The majority of the copyrights broken belong to members of the MPAA or RIAA. These groups have been deliberately attempting to reduce the public domain. As such, they are acting contrary to the constitutional aim of copyright and their copyrights should be invalid. Given that they have had several chances to act against it and have failed in their constitutional duty, the members of the supreme court should be impeached for allowing this kind of situation to continue. Unfortunately judicial immunity makes that a bit difficult.
Don't confuse "you can't prove it" which is a simple factual matter with "this should be allowed" which is a moral matter. Also don't confuse that with "this is legal" which is often decided in practice by judges who don't understand the issue in the first place. By mixing these things up you give arguments to your enemies.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)