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An Anti-DoS Tool That Returns Fire

An anonymous reader submits "Security company Symbiot is about to launch a product that can help companies fight back during a DDoS or hacker attack by launching their own counter offensive. A ZDNet UK story quotes security "experts" questioning the legality of such a product and asking how it will will avoid being fooled by hijacked PCs and spoofed IP addresses..."

29 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. Great, just what we need... by bc90021 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In advance of the product launch, Symbiot's president, Mike Erwin, and its chief scientist, Paco Nathan, have outlined a set of "rules of engagement for information warfare", which they say should be part of corporate security policy to help companies determine their exact response to an incoming attack."

    Can you imagine large corporations full of MCSEs engaging in "information warfware"? ::shudder::

    1. Re:Great, just what we need... by mkmoose · · Score: 5, Funny
      Yes but you can be a captain in the information warfare MCSE in 21 days for just $99.99 with appropriate study materials sold at a low low price.

      Don't forget to salute.

  2. I want an anti-spam tool to return fire by mkmoose · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where is the tactical nuke for spam? I want a tool that goes on the offensive against spammers.

    1. Re:I want an anti-spam tool to return fire by cooley · · Score: 5, Funny

      You could spend time developing a MOAIB (Mother Of All InBoxes?)

      --
      Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al
  3. Dude! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    heh, don't link to the company's website, slashdot editors - the /. horde will make with the clicking and they might return fire to your readers. ;)

    (oblig. - "Of course, that would require them to be reading the articles")

  4. ahhhh by humankind · · Score: 4, Funny

    Symbiot, a Texas-based security firm

    Ok, it makes sense now.

    1. Re:ahhhh by sheetsda · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nah, it'll start making sense when your network starts deciding to pre-emptively destroy threats. "11.245.21.4 has weapons of mass DDoSing, observe these reports where he pinged us 3 times. Packet bomb him." In the aftermath your network will discover that the IP address actually had no DDoS zombies, but was simply a NAT, the nodes behind which needed to be "liberated" from the NATs tyranny.

  5. The #! anti-DOS tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    entering the word EXIT (followed by pressing the Enter key) is a surefire way to kill those ding-dang DOS session windows.

  6. In other news by Eagle5596 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot has been knocked off the web for good, seemingly due to the fact that several of the daily stories it linked too were running the new "counter-attack" DoS protection.

  7. Re:Friendly fire. by Wraithlyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then of course there's version 2, which preemptively attacks any remote hosts that could conceivably pose a threat. Inspired by official US Foreign Policy. Ba-dum-ching. ;)

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  8. Cookies by pyrrhonist · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article:

    You may be taking out grandma's computer in Birmingham that has got a 100-year-old cookie recipe that has not been backed up.

    Okay, now they're crossing the line. You mess with Granny's Lucious Cookies, and you're in for it. This means war!

    --
    Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
  9. One good turn deserves another by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    And then, of course, there's the French version.

    It preemptively surrenders even before it's attacked.

    1. Re:One good turn deserves another by tonyr60 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or the Palestine/Israel version that goes into an infinite loop.

    2. Re:One good turn deserves another by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 5, Funny

      Swiss version: Remains neutral, and offers convenient banking services to all the warring parties.

    3. Re:One good turn deserves another by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, yeah, and the Italian version, which switches sides in the middle of the attack.

      The Andorran version, well, the ethernet cable is really just for show, for ceremonial purposes you understand. We aren't actually hooked up to the net and the "attack' is a just a script we run once a year.

      The Laotian version, "Pedal faster, I think we're winning!"

      The Tahitian version, well, that's just the French version really, in a box with a palm tree on it.

      That Australian version, "Phhhhhh! That's not a DDoS. THIS is a DDoS!"

      The Mexican version, "Manana."

      The Burmese version, which preemptively attacks itself.

      The desktop version for Jewish mothers, which when attacked just issues a popup saying, "No, that's ok. Don't worry about me. I'll just sit here alone in the dark. You never give me any network traffic anyway."

      Ad nearly infinitum.

      KFG

  10. Re:Friendly fire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny


    "Look out, we're being attacked by 127.0.0.1! Return fire!"

  11. Re:Friendly fire. - Old Mailbombing attacks by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Anyone remember the old days when you would mailbomb someone until their mailbox filled up so the mail server would bounce the message back

    So then you forged a message so that it looked like it came from a second victim - and when their mailbox filled up it would bounce them back to the first victim

    A fun way to take down T-1 lines back in the day when that was considered more bandwidth than any large university could ever use... Not that I have ever done anything like this

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
  12. And the US version... by Kinniken · · Score: 4, Funny

    Which launch the "counter-attack" on random servers before it's even attacked, just in case.

    --
    What do you know about World Politic? Find out in this quiz
  13. Re:Friendly fire. by jazman_777 · · Score: 5, Funny
    It would be even worse if it was effective. Imagine the first time some joined corps get hit by a distributed reflection DOS attack and their little vigilante group of automated systems take out CNN, AOL, Yahoo, Google, etc in the counterstrike.

    Just write it off as regrettable "collateral damage" in the "war on cyberterrorism" and reload.

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  14. Re:Friendly fire. by PacoTaco · · Score: 5, Funny
    What stops company X from making a "pact" with company Y? If company X is getting DoS'd, then company Y helps defend by launching their own counter-strike.

    You're fine until someone kills Archduke Ferdinand.

  15. Or the Polish Version by thrillbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    It shuts down the instant you bring it online. To conserve energy.

  16. Or the Iraq version by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Funny

    It just pretends it has the capability to counter-attack.

    --
    Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  17. Or the Soviet Version by Loki_1929 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which launches DDoS attacks against itself, but then runs out of money and breaks up into smaller, poorer versions of itself.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  18. Or the UN version by Mulletproof · · Score: 4, Funny

    Which denies the attacks ever existed dispite reporting them itself last year.

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
  19. Re:Friendly fire. by SmackCrackandPot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reminds me of a paragraph I once heard:

    "In the history of our country, diplomatic relationships with third world dictatorships have always been difficult. In such situations we usually have to deal with a ruling party leader who doesn't listen to the people, won't accept public criticism and only listens to those able to make large donations of money to the party. And the third world dictator isn't any better either."

  20. Or the Japanese Version by cgenman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Which swears off all forms of attack, unless it involves giant robots or tentacles.

  21. This is brilliant by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

    It used to be that you had to use email worms to conscript people's PCs into your private army of DDoS zombies. By packaging the trojan and calling it a security product you can avoid all that hassle.

  22. Or the American version by geekoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    We Counter Attack with a DDoS before someone who might have "DDoS of mass destruction" attacks us.
    .
    .
    .
    . .then blame the British.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  23. Again? by Rorschach1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone gets this idea every few years. Probably from watching too many bad hacker movies.

    Just smile, nod politely, and let the lawyers take care of it.