CYBER ATTACKS

FYI-An estimated 15% of computers will be controlled externally by the end of 2009.


Joseph Menn and Barret Lyon work together to help bring cyber attacks down. Barret Lyon has helped Las Vegas with their online gambling websites when they were being extorted; held hostage in exchange for money. How the hackers were doing this was by gaining access to thousands of computers through cyber holes in the system using software. Once they gained access to the computers, the hackers would flood the website with requests using their hacked computers and shut the website down until their demands were met. Las Vegas online gambling is just one example of many types of websites and businesses that are extorted.

Joseph Menn has helped to reduce Denial of Service attacks (DoS) and track down the hackers. Some ways that they are able to do this is by a Microsoft program called SNM protocol which is used to look into the brain of a computer and see who is communicating with the computer. At this point they were able to gain access to some of the information on the hackers and pretend to be a friend and collect information from them. Another way that they gained access to the hackers’ information was through logging systems designed to send an alert when someone was logging into a system using their nickname. Often, a nickname would be connected to another information resource or source of registration that contained their real information (name, address, phone number, etc.).

Joseph Menn and Barret Lyon are claiming that a Geo Political Struggle is what is behind many of today’s cyber attacks; having the ability to shut down other political services/systems, steal commercial and military secrets, and even shut down the electrical grid. Pretty soon war will not be with guns and bombs but, it will be a cyber war.