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Craig:
Welcome
to CN Consulting's "Cocktail Talk".
Cocktail Talk is a casual monthly newsletter
intended to arm you with amusing bits and bytes of information on
whats happening in the computer world. Topics sure to break the ice
and capture an audience at many a social or business event.
Cocktail
Talk is archived on www.cnci.us
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Currently, on Cocktail Talk - Low Orbit Ion Cannons
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It is now perfectly legal to carry a
concealed firearm in public everywhere in the country except for
Washington, D.C. Anywhere, even on private property and places
of work and worship unless posted otherwise, but not in
schools, parks, police stations, court rooms, mental facilities,
government buildings (redundant), in bars, beyond an airport
checkpoint, and other places.
But a "Low Orbit Ion Cannon"? No, you
can't go carrying that around, can you?
24 year old Jacob Allen Wilkens (not his real name) of
Postville, Iowa didn't seem to care when he used one to attack a
helpless Angel Soft bathroom tissue website. Magistrate Judge James R. Sickel (not his real name)
did however sentencing him to 24 months probation and ordering him
to pay $110,932.71 in restitution.
According to the FBI's press release Wilkens
had previously pled guilty to his participation along with members
of the online hacker group Anonymous in a Distributed Denial of
Service attack against the Angel Soft bathroom tissue website.
Angel Soft is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the intended target
of the attack. Koch Industries suffered several hundred-thousand
dollars in loss.
I don't know WIlkins from Adam, but I do know
Anonymous. Anonymous has claimed credit, or been credited, for
numerous attacks and you never know where public opinion will fall
with vigilantism. They attacked the Australian Government when they
thought it was going to ban pornography showing small breasted
women, attacked Angel Soft because the Kochs supported a
Republican, stole and published tweets and video from an Ohio
football team hiding their gang rape of an under aged girl, and
even attacked Scientology and Tom Cruise.
Executing a Distributed Denial of Service attack is
just a matter of flooding the victim with many requests from many
locations. So many that they can't keep up processing them and
their website or network slows to a crawl, or shuts down
completely.
But we're still left with two burning questions.
What is a Low Orbit Ion Cannon? And where can we get one?
Low Orbit Ion Cannon is just the name of some
software used to "stress test" networks. It can also be
used to generate a Denial of Service attack by over stressing a
network, or website. Now for the good news, it's free! Anybody can
go to an Open Source website, like SourceForge or Opensource, and
get one.
Once you have your own Low Orbit Ion Cannon you can
aim it at whatever website you want. Don't get all giddy though,
you'd probably need a lot more than one PC targeting a website to
be noticed. But then again.
Low Orbit Ion Cannons, Anonymous, probation,
restitution, or not, that's
your call, and that's Cocktail Talk.
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Thank you
for reading,
Craig
Phillips
CN
Consulting, Inc.
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CN Consulting, Inc - www.cnci.us
Computer Consulting for Business!
CN Consulting Inc. (CNCI) is an independent
consulting company formed in 1990 and located within easy reach of
both Chicago and Milwaukee.
CNCI maintains a select client base providing
consulting services concerning the use of information technology.
We persistently look for advantage to our clients in added value
and reduced cost made available by advancing technology.
CNCI does not have financial interest in any given
product or product line. We evaluate current and emerging
technologies solely based on their benefit to our clients. CNCI
implements the solutions it recommends and readily partners with
companies that offer products and services to the advantage of our
clients. CNCI offers complete client support with singular
accountability.
We maximize the benefit of our clients' existing
technology, systems, and platforms while integrating the benefits
provided by new technology.
Business Continuity and Business Development are our
goals with Continuity being the foundation of Development.
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