Denial of service

[Bill]

I spent an interesting couple of hours yesterday with the police cyber crime department based in Preston who were investigating a denial of service attack on one of the companies that uses my companies equipment. This type of trouble doesn't really affect individuals like us but for companies that rely on internet access for their business, it can effectively close them down. It's not a virus as such but rather a flood of so much junk data being sent to a company's router that their systems can't receive anything else and just freeze. 

The hacker was good and able cancel out all our attempts to stop this happening but things got more serious when a member of staff received an anonymous email from the hacker threatening to do the same at every company using our equipment if we continued with our attempts to stop him. To prove he had the capability, he included a list list of all our access codes so it looked like he'd been into our system as well but sending the anonymous email was his big mistake.  Anyway can't say too much as the investigation is well underway but a warrant has been issued and he'll probably be receiving a very early wake up very soon. 

Having got back from this meeting, I was amazed to see on telly that both Greater Manchester Police and Cheshire Police had both been affected by exactly the same sort of attack. Manchester was affected for several hours while Cheshire Police were completely off line for two days. The attacker was traced and sentenced to 18 months.

 

Bill   

[Latchford Locks]

7 hours ago, Bill said:

I spent an interesting couple of hours yesterday with the police cyber crime department based in Preston who were investigating a denial of service attack on one of the companies that uses my companies equipment. This type of trouble doesn't really affect individuals like us but for companies that rely on internet access for their business, it can effectively close them down. It's not a virus as such but rather a flood of so much junk data being sent to a company's router that their systems can't receive anything else and just freeze. 

The hacker was good and able cancel out all our attempts to stop this happening but things got more serious when a member of staff received an anonymous email from the hacker threatening to do the same at every company using our equipment if we continued with our attempts to stop him. To prove he had the capability, he included a list list of all our access codes so it looked like he'd been into our system as well but sending the anonymous email was his big mistake.  Anyway can't say too much as the investigation is well underway but a warrant has been issued and he'll probably be receiving a very early wake up very soon. 

Having got back from this meeting, I was amazed to see on telly that both Greater Manchester Police and Cheshire Police had both been affected by exactly the same sort of attack. Manchester was affected for several hours while Cheshire Police were completely off line for two days. The attacker was traced and sentenced to 18 months.

 

Bill   

Not enough is being done until the hackers strike and then all hell breaks loose!

Surely if enough money was thrown at recruiting the brains to counter these attacks then it would be seen as less of an easy target.

In fact they do say an ex poacher makes the best gamekeeper.

[Evil Sid]

More like the old time western gunslinger, always somebody who will come along and be quicker on the draw.

When computing was in it's infancy it was more like "i wonder what happens if i do this" sort of endeavour. More curiosity rather than malice.

Hacking these days is just electronic blackmail. Today it is a lucrative business and i do sometimes wonder if the ex poachers are not quite so EX as they are made out to be.

 

[asperity]

The Adam and Eve computer virus takes a couple of Bytes out of your Apple.

[Bill]

Just a little update.

The bloke I was on about did get arrested earlier this week and his phone and computer equipment were taken away for forensic investigation. 

Let's hope he get more than a good talking to.

 

Bill

[Confused52]

Bill, have they taken out what sounds like a bot net that he was using too?

[Bill]

Don't know as I only heard the police had executed the warrant just before my holiday. 

Bill