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Court finds teenagers carried out hacking spree

Security
  • This is nuts. Not only did a bunch of teenagers hack into some of the best defended networks in the world, but the UK authorities allowed one individual to do this three times - despite arresting him in the first instance then bailing him - for him to do the same again - TWICE.

    The legal system in the UK is a joke. The computer misuse act alone should have been enough to detain him pending trial, and yet, they released him and allowed him to continue??

    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66549159

    Now, admittedly, there is an art form here that should be leveraged and understood in order for organizations to better arm themselves against future attacks. If juveniles are able to break their way into high profile organizations, then this would literally be kindergarten for an experienced nefarious actor.

    It seems that high profile companies will continue to remain targets while they focus more effort on profits than user vulnerability. According to the article, the attackers bombarded employees with access requests and some approved this access as a way of making it stop!

    There are several extremely valuable lessons that can be learned from these events - one of them being able to determine the level of risk posed by an individual - which it seems that the UK authorities completely failed to do.

    More on the recently updated Computer Misuse Act can be found below

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-the-computer-misuse-act-1990/review-of-the-computer-misuse-act-1990-consultation-and-response-to-call-for-information-accessible


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    @Hari Ok, no issues. Keep me posted…

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    @mathourthy Good question. They have zero effect from what I can see. It’s not going to stop them from targeting anyone else.

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    @DownPW 🙂 most of this really depends on your desired security model. In all cases with firewalls, less is always more, although it’s never as clear cut as that, and there are always bespoke ports you’ll need to open periodically.

    Heztner’s DDoS protection is superior, and I know they have invested a lot of time, effort, and money into making it extremely effective. However, if you consider that the largest ever DDoS attack hit Cloudflare at 71m rps (and they were able to deflect it), and each attack can last anywhere between 8-24 hours which really depends on how determined the attacker(s) is/are, you can never be fully prepared - nor can you trace it’s true origin.

    DDoS attacks by their nature (Distributed Denial of Service) are conducted by large numbers of devices whom have become part of a “bot army” - and in most cases, the owners of these devices are blissfully unaware that they have been attacked and are under command and control from a nefarious resource. Given that the attacks originate from multiple sources, this allows the real attacker to observe from a distance whilst concealing their own identity and origin in the process.

    If you consider the desired effect of DDoS, it is not an attempt to access ports that are typically closed, but to flood (and eventually overwhelm) the target (such as a website) with millions of requests per second in an attempt to force it offline. Victims of DDoS attacks are often financial services for example, with either extortion or financial gain being the primary objective - in other words, pay for the originator to stop the attack.

    It’s even possible to get DDoS as a service these days - with a credit card, a few clicks of a mouse and a target IP, you can have your own proxy campaign running in minutes which typically involves “booters” or “stressers” - see below for more

    https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/ddos-as-a-service-attacks-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work

    @DownPW said in Setting for high load and prevent DDoS (sysctl, iptables, crowdsec or other):

    in short if you have any advice to give to secure the best.

    It’s not just about DDos or firewalls. There are a number of vulnerabilities on all systems that if not patched, will expose that same system to exploit. One of my favourite online testers which does a lot more than most basic ones is below

    https://www.immuniweb.com/websec/

    I’d start with the findings reported here and use that to branch outwards.

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    @crazycells this perhaps? 🙂

    terminator_endoskeleton_1020.webp

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    @DownPW yeah, I seem to spend a large amount of my time trying to educate people that there’s no silver bullet when it comes to security.

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    Now, “SBF” is beginning a lengthy prison sentence of 25 years for what prosecutors have described as “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.

    25 years for stealing billions of dollars? Seems pretty lenient to me 😠

    https://news.sky.com/story/sam-bankman-fried-disgraced-crypto-king-jailed-for-25-years-after-stealing-billions-of-dollars-from-ftx-customers-13103158

    Clearly, this early estimate was completely wrong

    The 30-year-old founder of FTX is being held on criminal charges over an alleged “brazen, multi-year” mass financial fraud, and faces up to 115 years in jail if convicted.

    I personally think that 115 years is more appropriate and even that will never compensate those that have lost their life savings because of this man’s greed and narcissism.