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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!
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
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
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]
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
:)
Only on Slashdot men find more joy in owning a girls pc than actually owning the actual girl
...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...
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!
it would have been EASIER to go into her room...but less fun
Me, personally, I would've gone into her room and gained direct access to her box.
Of course that has more to do with the type of female roommates I have had.
--Drunk as in Beer
This is an ongoing April Fool about posting excessive amounts of April Fools?
Annual, actually.
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?
*BOOM* Beer gushes out of the chimney
- A real programmer uses $ cat > a.out
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.
You forgot one thing...this is a roommate.
Definately not worth the trouble!
Things go sour, and you are stuck with that 24/7 for who knows how long!
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
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
you have to stay away from the roommates.
Reason #1. Hot girls generally have hot friends. And lots!
Reason #2. You do something with her...she gets pissed at you later...then who is going to cook and clean?!!?
Reason #3. You have to put up with her 24/7...can you really take the risk of having a bitchy roommate?
Reason #4. She will catch you with other girls. Girls you dont live with wont find out about each other.
And the list goes on and on....
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
The freeware package - PAYBACK v1.0 - is available from www.backfiresecurity.co.uk in both PC and Mac formats.
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.
confusus says: never consider the consiquences when opening the ports of other's hardware, only your own.
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.
I owned my roommates computer last nite...and she couldnt trace NOTHING!
She could not trace nothing...
Oh boy, you're so scr3w3d. Depending on the girl, this could be a reward or a punishment I guess (the same goes the other way around, but in this case, I'm willing to bet it'll be a punishment for her, in which case this entire reasoning becomes void [recursive error detected]).
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
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.
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 ----
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
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.
No, no.. You interpreted what I said that wrong way, that's not what I meant. What I meant was, the female roommate I had didn't mind me going into her room late at night and playing with her box. In fact she encouraged me to, since she usually needed me to do something with it. She depended on me to work on her box. And man, did she have a nice one, I didn't mind one bit. I played with it a lot.
--Drunk as in Beer
> 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
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.
Wouldn't it be She could not trace anything?
Aw people, this mrtroy wrote a stylish joke
and got moderated down, while
those who explained his joke got mod'd up...
Something's terribly wrong here.
Stupid and ugly people, go work in mines!
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
you have to stay away from the roommates.
If you're a guy living with a girl, you're already screwed.
Reason #1. Hot girls generally have hot friends. And lots!
If you mean lots of hot male friends, you might be right.
Reason #2. You do something with her...she gets pissed at you later...then who is going to cook and clean?!!?
She's going to get pissed at you for any given reason, you can't do anything about this. And you need someone to cook and clean for you? That's fucking pathetic. Roommate != mommy. Relying on her for cooking and cleaning will only bring you closer to being married to her.
Reason #3. You have to put up with her 24/7...can you really take the risk of having a bitchy roommate?
You're already running the risk of having a bitchy roommate by moving in with a girl.
Reason #4. She will catch you with other girls. Girls you dont live with wont find out about each other.
So? Why should she care? If she slept with you, she's probably sucking and fucking 12 other guys. Shit, get a threesome going or something.
And the list goes on and on....
Yes it does. That's what happens when you move in with a girl. You think of long lists of why you won't fuck her, but you're already screwed.
>Reason #1. Hot girls generally have hot friends. And lots!
>Reason #2. You do something with her...she gets pissed at you later...then who is going to cook and clean?!!?
Her hot roomates, obviously, which is why you shouldn't stay away from 'em. *rimshot*
You use the deprecated meaing of h4x0r and craking !(is 1337)
-- When did Ignorance Become a Point of View?
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...
I like how a joke response to an April Fools joke is modded as offtopic. No, wait....I don't like that. Hold on. Actually I don't care. Forget I said anything.
We merkins know all about those vixen boxen.. ;)
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.