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CNN Says Chat Rooms Are a Haven for Hackers
MiTEG writes "CNN is carrying an article about IRC and how it aids "hackers" with their mischief. There are some alarming quotes from Bruce Schneier, CTO of Counterpane Technologies, such as "people who are anti-big-corporation are going to be more likely to use something like IRC"." Yeah, if they ever hung out in our chatroom, they'd
lock us all up for abusing Kurt the Pope.
And fresh reports say that 'hackers' also use e-mail, telephones and postal services. Shut them all down!
Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
In this age of watered-down single source media, this article is about par for the course. It's hard to believe that the bulk of American's accept CNN as a reliable media outlet.
this just in -- dancefloors, bars, other public settings rumored to be HACKER FREE!
thelocust[dot]org
Chatrooms, in the news over the past years, have also been a haven for:
People sharing interest in pretty much everything you can find in alt.* and rec.*
Pedophiles
People meeting each other legitimately and socially
Terrorist plots
The future of Slashdot
It's just another red herring for the media, the biggest news for the New Yahk media is a big drought in Delaware, so guess what they dig up to shock Mr. and Mrs. Average American. Big wh00p.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Anonymously stealing, trading personal information
Ok, do this over IRC, and you're a criminal - do it with a website, spyware, or spam, and you're a business.
hmmmm..... maybe I need to check out #amazon and #brilliant.
the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) didn't provide any statements to CNN regarding what goes on in Internet Relay Chat
Gee, I guess it would have been way too much trouble for CNN's hotshot reporters to log on and find out for themselves before running this half-baked article.
"A lot more credit card numbers are stolen than ever used, but you should assume that right now, in your wallet, there's a credit card number that has been stolen off the Net."
You should ALSO assume that your wife is cheating on you. And you're about to be fired. And someone is monitoring you. Constantly. We even know what brand of socks you're wearing.
That was a good laugh.. and my friends.. that's why it was posted to /. :)
:) Surprised they didn't talk about that.
:) I met both my partners of my company (Web Hosting/Web Development) on IRC, and they have been good friends ever since. It is quite the successful business, and I have learned much since then... all because of IRC (well, I guess not that much.. I'm still using /. ;)
;better person.. to react in the right mannor (not just to get +o.. or plus +O for that matter ;0)
:) afaik :)
I've been IRC'ing since 1992. That's 10 years, and I'm still not a veteran.
Some of the World's (Internet's) greatest heros and founders hang out on EFNet/IRC or some like service...
Remember BBS?
It's so typical for people to lash out on things they do not understand. More or less, its all too typical that they never emphasize the best parts about it. I mean comon.. Let's think about it.
IRC is a place to share knowledge, not just CC #'s (who are they kidding.. I have never been asked to trade a CC # or anything of the like.) Many of the World's 'hackers' (or techies that work for YOUR company) can acredit their knowledge (or at least the start) to IRC. I know I can.
I knew nothing (well, not nothing, a tincy bitty bit) about the Internet, its structure, protocols, computers, other operating systems, etc. before I came to IRC.
It all started with the 'need' to have an eggdrop bot in my channel.. How the hell was I to do this?
*shrug* I didn't know what I was doing.. but I got my hands on a free WOPR.net shell, (if anyone knows who I'm talking about.. send a shout out.. I'm curious) and was forced to learn a bit of unix commands (heh) to opperate the bot...
By and by I had shell after shell.. learning more about *nix as the opportunity came along. I eventually had the oppertunity to have root on a friends system (from IRC) and learned more and more about the system and how it worked.
Fast forward a bunch of years
The news concentrates on the bad things always.. I've become a better person because of IRC, completely. Not only have I learned a tone of IT stuff.. I've also learned how to be a
Much of the Internet success stories are because of IRC, and I feel this article fails to discuss this... That is a bad thing, and this is why us 'hackers' seem to get a bad rep.
Oh yeah.. IRC didn't teach me how to spell, really
------------
Sase
"It's the opposite of that."
"A lot more credit card numbers are stolen than ever used, but you should assume that right now, in your wallet, there's a credit card number that has been stolen off the Net."
To me this says, that I should assume, in my wallet is a stolen credit card. Well, there isn't, and I don't need to check. I have one credit card, and since I get a statement every month with my name on it, I obviously didn't steal it.
Now if he's just a confusing person and is actually saying that I should assume that one of my credit card numbers has been stolen. Well, as long as everyone out there practices some basic security, they shouldn't worry about that either. The first thing is to make sure you have fraud protection on your credit card (most have a $50 limit now). Second, look at your statement! If you just pay your bill without examining the charges, well, send me your credit card number!
There are some alarming quotes from Bruce Schneier, CTO of Counterpane Technologies, such as "people who are anti-big-corporation are going to be more likely to use something like IRC".
It actually seems to me that Schneier did a pretty good job of preventing some editor from slapping an alarmist breaker along the lines of "IRC is a tool designed for smelly hackers" into the piece; take a look at the full quote:
"It's older, it's not tied to Microsoft or AOL or a big company, it's one of the Internet protocols ... so if you're running Windows or Linux or Macintosh or another flavor of Unix, you can use it," says Schneier. "So it's not that it's more suitable for hackers to use, it's just a more basic service and people who are anti-big-corporation are going to be more likely to use something like IRC." [Emphasis added.]
He goes out of his way to point out that there's nothing that makes IRC particularly "suited" to nefarious purposes, but rather that its non-corporate nature is likely to appeal to anti-corporate people. (That, of course, is an assertion that can be argued forever, but it doesn't strike me as too alarming.)
* * *
It is a dada story -- it has no moral.
I may have skimmed a little too lightly, but I didn't see anyone mention that CNN actually runs one of the best IRC servers used for interactive televsion! When Mir was returning to Earth, there were well over 800 people in the room.
Then, with Talkback Live, they make excellent use of AIM and IRC. Very forward thinking.
Intelligent Life on Earth
I dunno how many of you nerds know Bayes Theorem but it's one of the first rules and statisticians learn and, annoyingly, it is one of the more unintuitive arguments for the uninitiated
<Offtopic>I can't stand the current Cannibis debate in the UK where people state something like that 95% of heroin addicts used Cannibis first as a gateway drug. Therefore Cannabis should be illegal. While I agree Cannabis should be illegal, that argument is a statistically false one because you cannot say that 99% of cannabis users go on to take heroin. That would be significant</offtopic>
Here, just because I imagine 99% of script kiddies use IRC, does not mean we should be anti IRC. You cannot map it to the proper argument where I imagine only <1% of all IRC users have anything to do with hacking and scripting. If you, for example, kill IRC, you upset 99% of the populatoin and script kiddies go elsewhere
Exploitation of people's misunderstanding of Bayes makes the easiest and most effective weapon in the world of FUD
...but you should assume that right now, in your wallet, there's a credit card number that has been stolen off the Net."
Opens up wallet.
OMG! He's right! Someone stole a CC number off the Internet and put it in my wallet! These hackers are good!
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Boy, oh, boy...you must be relatively new to the Internet.
Here's just one example of organized credit card fraud on the Internet. Some software piracy groups have *entire segments* dedicated to credit card fraud. They even have a name for these folks: "carders." They'll "card" a laptop, CD writer, etc. for you, and find a way to get it safely received. Many of these folks have huge lists of names, addresses, and credit card numbers that often come from compromised websites.
It's happened to me before. Luckily, I caught it, and I learned from my mistake. I've found a way to help defend against this kind of attack.
Everyone should think about using one-time-use credit card numbers when making purchases from anyone over the phone or Internet. Several credit card issuers offer this feature. Here's an example of one of them.
Other places hackers hang out:
- malls
- coffee shops
- schools
CNN might want to investigate these places as well. Inside sources from CNN also tell me that these things called "newsgroups" exist. Appearantly, these "newsgroups" allow people to exchange "news", which according to CNN sources is a "code word" for "illegal activities", and is a new sweeping trend in the scary hacker underworld.Also, staring at the sun can cause blindness.
Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that. -CP
I thought the only people on IRC were FBI agents pretending to be 14 year old girls. There are hackers there, too?
Law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained. -- Aaron Burr
Pardon me. But my colorblind friend says the sky is a medium gray.
He can't understand blue, or what possible uses that color has on a day to day basis.
Likewise, the people out there coming up with these "notices" are technology blind.
So if we couldn't trust a colorblind person to paint your house, how can we trust technology-blind legislators and other political reps to make the right decisions or statements on our behalf...?
Time to get out the voting stick.