Curious about how hackers actually manage to do something like crash Mastercard’s website in retaliation over the company’s refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks?
Earlier today I noticed this post by a friend on Facebook: The Story Behind the Mastercard and VISA DDoS Attacks. I’m not fluent in geek-speak, so some of the acronyms go over my head. But from what I understand, hackers have altered some open-source software to enable anyone to join in the attack. Basically you voluntarily become part of a botnet (or rather, enable your computer to do so).
Barrett Lyon, the author of the post writes:
What is amazing is that these people are having success, they are operating a full PR campaign that has created logos, Wikipedia pages, web sites, operations infastructure, and attack software. Now, they are getting angry people all over the world to join in on their cause and start attacking whatever they choose. It’s hacktivism at its best.
Their botnet is also rather unusual. Unlike botnets in the past (which take advantage of holes in operating systems to install the bot software) this botnet is made up of volunteers. It’s opt-in and if you follow their instructions, once it is up and running, you are to, ‘Sit back and watch the show’.
Sound like a simple and exciting way to get involved? Well, there are points to be considered. I found the comments to be informative on the pros and cons of the system. One person posting as Stiennon says, “While crowdsourced attacks are temporarily successful most people get tired of clogging their own computers and uplinks with attack traffic. They are also participating in illegal activity and know it. Mastercard has all their IP addresses. Not good for them if legal reprisals are in order.”