Slashdot Mirror
Blackhole Exploit Kit Successor Years Away
msm1267 writes "The Blackhole Exploit Kit has been out of commission since October when its alleged creator, a hacker named Paunch, was arrested in Russia. The kit was a favorite among cybercriminals who took advantage of its frequent updates and business model to distribute financial malware to great profit. Since the arrest of Paunch, however, a viable successor has yet to emerge--and experts believe one will not in the short term. This is partially the reason for the increase in outbreaks of ransomware such as CryptoLocker as hackers aggressively attempt to recover lost profits."
This isn't a story about wormholes and warp drive? It's just a story about hackers?
What a gyp!
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Come 90 days when 30% of all computers gets death by 1,000 fire ants with exploits all at once.
Especially since MSE wont wont save these users either.
Popcorn time, or an oh shit time if the internet potentially goes offline due to 260,000,000 infected bots.
http://saveie6.com/
Do you know what a script kiddie is, or are you under the impression that it means 'someone I don't like?'
Let's face it, these professional exploit writers are not "years away" from their next great product. They don't stand idly by thinking they are winning. They continue to develop and hone their craft.
These new 'crypto locker' products are problematic and are going to wreak a lot of havoc on people. And while we security folks are battling the latest lock schlock the exploiteers are just waiting for us to get a handle on things so they can throw us the next curveball.
And let's not forget that the end of support for XP is coming in April. Whatever they have been holding back for XP's independence will show up soon after Microsoft finally sets XP adrift on an ice raft.
One person? All the crime?
When I was young and naive, and my worst worry was the Back Orifice from The Cult of the Dead Cow. :-)
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Was the double entendre intentional?
This way we can feel save and be save.
Script kiddies run it, but a hacker created it.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
With a dim monitor and a brief glance on the headline, I totally misread it as Butthole Expansion Kit Successor. Too much slashdotting?
is already underway. You just don't know it yet.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Merriam-Webster states that it is "probably short for gypsy." I trust Merriam-Webster over wikipedia in this case.
Why would you trust Marriam Webster? What makes that more authoritative?
The new Slashdot site really improves with every update. Now I'm forced to enable Javascript if I want to read the comments.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
>100 years more experience being a reference, and having paid professionals doing the writing.
Else, why trust, say, Nature more than /. for credible science info?
People who do this aren't hackers, they're degenerate criminals. Hacking doesn't mean cybercrime, and I resent the assumption that it does.
Script kiddies run it, but a cracker created it.
Not even that. It's really about a bunch of self-declared "white hats" showing off how SMRT they are by posting "analysis" about the doings of their "black hat" friends. None of these are actually much into that thing we need so much to improve the state of the art, outstanding creativity with technology, which was the meaning of "hacking" before these s'kiddies hijacked the term.
A cracker is a hacker who specializes in security.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
And you both need to get over it. English has only descriptive dictionaries not prescriptive ones, anyone can assign any meaning to a word they like. I think from context it'd pretty unlikely ggp post was implying anything racial. Irrespective of the etemology "gyp" is used commonly today to simply mean a cheat of some kind, long separated from any disparaging racial stereotype, quite honestly the best way to get these racial stereotypes to go away is to stop finding reasons, or rather excuses to get all butt hurt ( is that offensive to homosexuals? ) all the time, if you don't come by later and make it about a certain group for most listeners and readers it won't be.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Hmm, I disagree. A cracker is certainly a very smart person that specialises in breaking or circumventing security systems, usually for illegal purposes or gains. A hacker on the other hand, may have all the same knowledge and capability, but generally won't actually do the cracking, or they may do it, only to prove they can but will leave it at that without causing any actual damage.
And you both need to get over it. English has only descriptive dictionaries not prescriptive ones, anyone can assign any meaning to a word they like.
The english language is not Fortran, where we should just redefine the value of four because we thought it'd be hip and cool. Language only works when people agree on what the words mean. So yes, anyone can assign any meaning to a word... but everyone else will (rightly) look at them as a dumb bastard who should be beaten to death slowly with a dictionary... and possibly the Chicago Style Manual too, because beating knowledge into people is a time-honored tradition amongst people who feel their IQ points slowly draining away everytime someone says something stupid on the internet and thinks it's actually half-way intelligent.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
No, a hacker can be a cracker, just like a locksmith can also be a housebreaker.
Hacker and cracker are not synonyms, but they are also not antonyms.
Real pirates have hundreds of thousands --if not millions-- of PCs under their control and are using their botnet to anonymously mine cryptocurrencies.
You have to be a sad and stupid fool to waste time trying to Cryptolock when there are millions to be made mining cryptocurrencies... Without *any* risk to get caught.
Crypto-locking harddisk and asking for a ransom may get you to jail.
Real succesful bad guys are joining anonymously several mining pools and printing money.
!= hackers, /.
as hackers aggressively attempt to recover lost profits.
No no no - thefts are not profits - they are thefts, period. As hackers attempt to steal more and more.
Find these hackers, chop off their hands, feet, throw them into a hog confinement and listen to them squeal.....
You're using "hip and cool" and "Fortran" in the same sentence?
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
"she can't afford to plop down several grand on a Windows 8 license, new computer, and internet connection"
When is the last time you bought a PC? This isn't Apple land. If all Grandma is doing is Internet and email (i.e. not spending every weekend playing Crysis 3 with her Bingo buddies), she doesn't have to spend more than $250-$300 for a cheap desktop, running Windows 7 or 8.1, that is more than well enough equipped to handle her casual computing needs.
"They chopped off his hands and feet and rolled him into the bog."
"They pick pretty hard around here..."
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Almost right, but the things you listed mostly affect the safety of the driver. Well, turn signals affect the safety of others, but in practice half of drivers don't bother to use them at all, so we have to drive like they don't exist (and be wary of those that might be unintentionally left on, effectively creating less safe situations).
Most states in the US require safety inspections annually or bi-annually. In those states, regardless of vehicle age, e.g. your brakes, alignment, tread, wipers, horn, etc. still have to meet spec. Also, while you'll get away with having no headlights during daylight here (even on a modern vehicle; YMMV), if it starts raining and you cannot turn on your headlights, you risk being pulled over and likely ending up with an impounded vehicle. So you cannot ignore all the safety standards, just those that mostly only put the driver and passengers at greater risk.
Back OT, we don't regulate operating consumer PCs without regard to the safety of others because the risk of death, amputation, and so on from a virus, worm, etc. is vanishingly small - so far, no DDOS has t-boned a school bus full of kids. However, I sometimes wonder just how many such occurrences it would take to lead to some kind of "PC safety and liability" legislation. For example, what if late this year some blackhat hacker utilized a botnet of unpatchable WinXP PCs to defeat a firewall at some industrial facility* and subsequently take over process control systems (foolishly not protected by an air-gap) causing an explosion (or whatever) that leads to many fatalities in the surrounding community? Interesting times, indeed.
[*] Make the facility manager a divorced woman and the hacker her vengeful ex-husband, and you've got another forgettable movie on Lifetime. If the poor protection of the process control systems is due to the (immoral, greedy, and of course male and lecherous) CEO ignoring her repeated recommendations to harden the security, that's Lifetime Movie of the Week material!
- T
That's etymology, not definition. There's a difference. Is the English language awful or awesome?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Is the English language awful or awesome?
Yes!...er...Both!