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Free Software Hits Back at Crackers
flokemon writes "This article from the Register announces the release of some free software from Backfire Security called Payback. "The software has the ability to instantly and dynamically 'trace' the IP source address - no matter how well masked - of the network attack/infection and respond by launching either a Domain Name or Mail Server flood attack in the direction of the attacker." This raises quite a few questions though, the legality of the software first, and I'm not really convinced that this would hit back at hackers more than it would hit back at infected servers." Hopefully those would be crackers will think twice now before engaging in their 31337 activities!
You cant stop the 31337 h4xs0rs!
I owned my roommates computer last nite...and she couldnt trace NOTHING!
Err...yes...it would have been EASIER to go into her room...but less fun
Now all day today her computer background will be changing to some funny pictures, for obvious reasons
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
Isn't retalliation for crimes the antithesis of our modern legal notions?
Take that *zap*
and that *bzzzzt*
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
anyone checked the date? lol
I get it. This is an ongoing April Fool about posting excessive amounts of April Fools?
Sigh...Remember when "Cracker" meant "White Person"?
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
So I guess we can all forget about any real news today.....
God, I hate April Fools... and it's only 9 in the am. What am I supposed to do in the absence of interesting news? Work? My boss might think I'm playing an April Fools on him.
No sig
This site collects your name & email before you can see the "April Fool! punch line. Use a pseudo.
Think, write, think, edit, think...then post.
(or .co.uk's)
Our aim is to exterminate all hackers and virus felons from the Internet by the end of 2004, and we have the unique technology to do it."
Even as a joke thats extra funny!
I hope their past work experience involved inventing the question mark...
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
Has anyone got any REAL news today?
(-1, anti-american)
...is there something they can't do?
Seeing how worms can bring the net to its knees, how is ever MORE traffic (probably misdirected) supposed to help anyone? Getting sucker-puched sucks, but it only gets worse if you start swinging-away in the croud...
They forgot to give credit where credit is due, though: ICE (intrusion countermeasures electronics, often fatal to the cracker), from William Gibson's novels.
Think, write, think, edit, think...then post.
"originally developed for the Chinese Space Program."
Ha this gave it away for me
We substituted the coffee Slashdot normally drinks with "Sandoz Crystals", Lets see if they notice the difference
Aren't April Fools jokes supposed to at least be funny? Seriouusly now...
Could've fooled me!
why wait until they've attacked? surely, current thinking is pre-emptive retaliation?
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="davide@multimediapr.co.uk">
And davide's inbox is going to be very full...
Oh, calm down and come back tomorrow.
And while you're gone, get hit in face with a cream pie, sit on a whoopie cushion, come across some fake dog turds, and locate a sense of humor.
usually it's comic relief... though there are interesting tidbits... i think the mantra is "news for nerds, stuff that matters", which thankfully doesn't exclude anything providing it's of some interest to most people... i actually found this one quite amusing, at least more than the others today.
PAYBACK v1.0 is a new kind of anti-hacker application called an IRS (Intruder Retaliation System) and is based upon "guerrilla" programming protocols and algorithms originally developed for the Chinese Space Program.
The IRS is not only every American's nightmare, it is now Godless Red Thread In Cyberspace
...a.k.a. April Fool's day. Remember when the jokes were really like, "HA HA, GOTCHA!" Now their about at bright as a crackhead trying to get past "J" with a crayon on wallpaper.
Looks like today is going to be a C-Strike day!
Trolls make great pets. Adopt one today!
Hmm, so far all the stories have been very transparent and rather shallow.
... but that passed.)
Somebody give me a good April Fools hoax that I will actually belive, pls.
(Gento Lunux was good and had me beating up my monitor for a bit
Yeah, DIE you motherf*cking animal crackers! I'll bite your heads off and drown you!
Repeal the DMCA!
God I hate April 1st...........
Basil
Did you see that south park episode where it's a rerun of the alien eposide where cartman gets that satellite transmitter up his ass...
... just gets funnier and funnier, imho.
Kyle: *reaches out to stick his hand up Cartman's butt, in order to activate the satellite*
Cart: *fart!*
Everyone: *laugh*
Cartman: Ok, sorry Kyle. I'm all out of farts now. Go ahead.
Kyle: *reaches out*
Cartman: *fart!*
Everyone: *laugh*
Cartman: Hahaha, no no, I'm really out of farts now Kyle. Go ahead for real now.
Kyle: *reaches out*
Cartman: *fart!*
~ fuzz
http://www.digifuzz.net
1) There haven't been any real articles today so far
2) All the jokes so far aren't even remotely believable
I remember the fun we had last year with some well-crafted stories. (In particular I remember a lot of flames generated over Linus quitting kernel development). The fraction of hoaxes was more than it should have been, but not as bad as this.
Anyway, about the article in question, note that backfire security doesn't exist, nor does Archie Mendoza.
...all those open ports....yum...*rubs hands together menacingly*
Yikes, i creeped myself out on that one. yeesh...
why run from Vincenzo?
How can one possibly trace back a spoofed IP address?
Dumb luck?
why run from Vincenzo?
Quit these inane April Fool's stories. I might have to actually work today..
Trolling is a art,
*BOOM* Beer gushes out of the chimney
- A real programmer uses $ cat > a.out
LOL LMAO ROLF Busting a gut. Oh ya. Your the man. You got me and everyone else. Now were is my cup of coffee. This is going to be a LONG day.
I learn so much. Maybe it's that spring is in the air and that the annual rebirth of the earth leads to exciting decisions being made, bold new ideas in software, and just general inspiration all around.
;-) )
I haven't figured out how this applies in the Southern hemisphere yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.
(It never grows old for me...
Acquiescence leads to obliteration
For that April fools, I just hijacked his FormMail script and am broadcasting pr0n spam to postmaster@ and abuse@ for all domains world wide.
Even if you don't don't want to read the article the ad for bill gates in red rubber is funny.
So this backfire thing might backfire on the backfirer? ie what goes around comes around goes around comes around x 6000.
Personally I like the one about internet cleanup day (there goes my cobweb).
As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shutdown for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates dead email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better working and faster Internet.
This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. GMT on April 1st until 12:01 a.m, GMT on April 2nd. During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.
We thank you for your cooperation.
Interconnected Network Maintenance staff,
Main branch,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
I wonder ho many spam lists my entered email address is going to end up on after that one.
I KNEW that today was April Fools, I told myself watchout for /. and their little games. I prepared myself.
Oh My God! They Pranked Phoenix...You Bastards!
(good one though)
Phoenix
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
/. all 365 days, with especial emphasis on April 1.
- Mark Twain
Or in the case of
Um, I'd say something like this...
/. for the un-funniness. The whole internet doesn't seem to get the april fool's day thing. Everyone does the same thing. WebComics switching artists. One-day site re-designs. Fake news. Fake articles. Pages that look true, but are fake.
/. could have done.
.6. It seems true, and you'll get a thousand screaming geeks heading to www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/ and finding nothing there. Fooled ya!
/. has left. If it has any. And it would fool everyone and actually be funny.
Slashdot is supposed to be a serious news source. How can it be when it participates in April fool's day by putting up LOTS of silly articles. I mean one is ok, but all of them?
But slashdot isn't a serious news source, and that's its mistake. It should and could be.
Anyway, I'm even more po'd because none of the joke articles are funny! They are all obviously false and didn't even get a grin out of me because of their lame-ness. Especially this one. Hack-back software? please.
Of course I can't just blame
It's April fool's day, not stupid ass fake shit day. You're supposed to fool somebody. A lot of people if you can. Here are some good April Fools day things
Announce the release of cockatrice(phoenix)
Announce that some open source group has bought up Duke Nukem Forever and has set a release date. Then set up a really really convincing site and a real sourceforge behind it. It's believable. In fact, someone could probably actually do that for real.
It's ideas like that that would be funny. You just have to mix them in with real articles, you know, to fool people. It would at least save the sliver of serious news reputation that
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Free Software Hits Back at Crackers
Yea, Just cause I am white doesn't mean... uh nevermind... =P
Pursuing that policy would be a big mistake. It would probably unite the highly fractured evil forces of the black hat programming community against an enormous common enemy such as the MS (who exist solely to protect us all from the threats that they define while they consume the contents of out wallets).
Hello? Hello, Dimitri? Listen, I can't hear too well, do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little? Oh, that's much better. Yes. Fine, I can hear you now, Dimitri. Clear and plain and coming through fine. I'm coming through fine too, eh? Good, then. Well then as you say we're both coming through fine. Good. Well it's good that you're fine and I'm fine. I agree with you. It's great to be fine. Now then Dimitri. ...
The freeware package - PAYBACK v1.0 - is available from www.backfiresecurity.co.uk in both PC and Mac formats.
Think of the DDOS possibilities... Send out a couple *fake* attacks to some "protected" hosts that are well spoofed with the desired targets real identity as the source...and wham, now you have a ton of "good" sites attacking someone else...completely anonymously!
well, here's the list of the best.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/top100.html
Totally agreed, and I'm quite tired of seeing how does it collect on boring april fools that I've already read on other sites.
Blah.
try http://www.backfiresecurity.co.uk/aprilfool.htm for more jokes.......
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
The cracker was a sub-overseer on a plantation. Both blacks and whites could be crackers.
NVIDIA Licence Update (Linux Exception)
/.
kinda believable, I hope it's real.
Orange Decides Against Code Signing
Old story, so nothing to do with April 1
Check this link 28 March 2003
I'm sure there's a few more real stories kicking that arn't on the front page of
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Let's just go ahead and put feet all the way across the banner so that everyone knows what day it is.
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the
respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and
the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were
enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage
of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of
viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow
their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that
they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for
the best."
#2: San Serriffe
In 1977 the
British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement in
honor of the tenth anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the
Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of
articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure
nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its
capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang
all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Few
noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology.
The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for
April Foolery that then gripped the British tabloids in the following decades.
#3: Sidd Finch
In its April 1985 edition,
Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to
play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch and he could reportedly throw a
baseball with startling, pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone
else has ever been able to throw a ball). Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never
even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in
a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa."
Mets fans everywhere celebrated at their teams's amazing luck at having found
such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more
information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the
imagination of the writer of the article, George Plimpton.
#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996
the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell from the
federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of
outraged citizens called up the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the
bell is housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco
Bell revealed that it was all a joke a few hours later. The best line inspired
by the affair came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about
the sale, and he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold, though
to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury
Memorial.
#5: Nixon for President
In 1992
National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon,
in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan
was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this
announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech.
Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls
expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the
host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a joke. Nixon's voice was
impersonated by comedian Rich Little.
#6: Hotheaded Naked
Ice Borers
In its April 1985 issue Discover Magazine announced
that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered a
new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating
creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blo
Nice one... let's see if it'll be duped later on the day.. :)
We go thru this every year, get a life and deal with it. It will be over soon. It wont return for another year..
Perhaps a bit juvenile, but its a lot better then a bunch of war stories.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
and this just in, the FSF announces its new CopyTheft license. Even the orginal copy is illegal. The MPAA's Jack Valenti is quoted as saying, "This is a huge advance. Now we don't even have to determine whether the user has a legal copy or not. And it's a benefit to our revenue stream as well since fines are a great deal larger than royalties".
Anyone else read that and immediatly think "Black Ice," as in the nasty stuff that fried your brains in Neuromancer? Definitely useful as a deterrent, but, as the the summary said (yes I know it's probably a joke), what if it struck back at the wrong person? Imagine someone going on a hacking spree, frying innocent bystanders left and right...
Jw
Could've fooled me then. I've browsed at -1 Nested for years now. I've always been able to post, and I'm posting right now.
Shows how much you know.
Nowadays, smart h4xx0rZ should probably take a laptop and connect to the internet through some idiot's wide-open Wi-Fi router...
I mean, there's seven of those on the way I take to work, and that's just three blocks away...
Machine9dotNet
I am now going to schedule my server to remind me not to visit slashdot on april 1st, and just to be safe April 2nd too.
This has got to be the 1st time that a story has been posted three times. Oh wait, it's April Fool's. It took 15 minutes to see the story or post to it. Is Slashdot, slashdotted?
"To deny our own impulses, is to deny the very thing that makes us human." - Mouse
> This raises quite a few questions though, the
> legality of the software first...
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Does that mean i am insecure?
What is this piece of metal that can talk??
Signautres are for unsigned ppl....
The lunatic is in my head
su ot gnoleb era esab rouy lla.
That is one of the most subtle and sweet April Fools pranks of all time.
Thanks
Everyone is Ignorant, just in different subjects.
"Here are some other great hoaxes to enjoy......" ...Implying that this one somehow is. I can't say it qualifies with such heady company as a UFO landing in London, personally.
-Website
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Of course that has more to do with the type of female roommates I have had.
Microso... oh, nevermind.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
If this gets any worse, I'll have to wipe my screen off with toilet paper everytime I visit today.
You just might want to block not only march 30th and 31st, as well as about 2 weeks.
Heck, there is still the chance the joke will be released several months in advance or be released late. Your only solution is to stay off the internet forever.
Why doesn't "reply to this" show up unless you are in threshold=1, mode=threaded, and on the first page. That is right, no pasting if you are actually on the second page. WTF??
Is this a bug? A "feature". Tell us please. It sucks. It needs fixing NOW.
I wrote an article and presented at BlackHat on the legalities of strike back. The materials are at the Blackhat site under my name, Karnow
"...by launching either a Domain Name or Mail Server flood attack in the direction of the attacker."
/.ing the server.
Doesn't seem nearly as effective as just
Here's Backfires website;
"This account has exceeded it's bandwidth quota and has been temporarily disabled. "
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
Folks...
What day is today?
Hmmm?
/.ed the same
You use the deprecated meaing of h4x0r and craking !(is 1337)
-- When did Ignorance Become a Point of View?
What about the software that hits back at the niggers, spics, moolies, wops, jews, ragheads, wetbacks, frenchies, krauts, nips, polocks and the chinks?
Why only the crackers?
Does it also work on the whities and honkeys?
my post got an offtopic mod? Is this another April Fools' joke? To the mod who marked me down on my test, go rent Doctor Strangelove, watch the first hour, then stop and write me an essay about how goddamned hilarious I am for drawing such a clever parallel between a frontpage April Fool's slashdot post and the brilliant premise of one of the greatest American black comedies ever filmed (thanks in no small part to a certain underappreciated genius of human dialogue).
So few geeks have even the slightest semblance of a sense of humor.
Repeat after me, boys: "rm -f marinasirtis*.jpg". Christ.
Having been the target of a /. DOS Attack ("This account has exceeded it's bandwidth quota and has been temporarily disabled."), do you think backfire security will retaliate agains CowboyNeal?
It was called Hand of God. It would trace back to the offending computer and hunt thru cookies/email logs/outlook etc and find the person's email address then submit it to 250,000+ porno sites. I believe the makers reffered to it as reverse email bombing. Anyone heard of this program or others like it?
The GEEK shall inherit the earth...
lets see if a server behind X corporation is infected and there are serveral others infected to send the deny attack that would lead me to believe that 1. cracker.hacker makes virus to infect system servers to do the work for him.
2. now half the Net has gone down
Yep sounds like a BACKFIRE to me.
A joke isn't a joke unless it's funny.
Price Wang's programmer was coding software. His fingers danced upon
the keyboard. The program compiled without an error message, and the program
ran like a gentle wind.
Excellent!" the Price exclaimed, "Your technique is faultless!"
"Technique?" said the programmer, turning from his terminal, "What I
follow is the Tao -- beyond all technique. When I first began to program I
would see before me the whole program in one mass. After three years I no
longer saw this mass. Instead, I used subroutines. But now I see nothing.
My whole being exists in a formless void. My senses are idle. My spirit,
free to work without a plan, follows its own instinct. In short, my program
writes itself. True, sometimes there are difficult problems. I see them
coming, I slow down, I watch silently. Then I change a single line of code
and the difficulties vanish like puffs of idle smoke. I then compile the
program. I sit still and let the joy of the work fill my being. I close my
eyes for a moment and then log off."
Price Wang said, "Would that all of my programmers were as wise!"
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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