*So, it's kinda like an SQL-injection botnet, then.
*This is the Summer of Cracking. It's like somebody gave the darkside LSD.
*Why is this happening? Black-hat hacking has been around for 30 years. What new factor has allowed them to amp up like this? Is it social-networking? Is it generational? Was there a tipping-point in numbers of users and abusers? Was it tacit encouragement from intelligence agencies, armies and political operatives? Is is the new profitability of computer crime, or the decline of national authority? Is it just the lulz, like spring fever, just the general planetary discontent?
*No tree reaches the sky, but I've never seen it like this. The early days of mass Internet viruses, maybe, but those were obscure and geeky and so-what compared to the summer of 2011.
*More from SANS. Look how perky and cheerful they are; it's boom time for mayhem.
–UK Teen Charged in SOCA Website Attack
(June 22, 2011)
Law enforcement officials in the UK have formally charged 19-year-old
Ryan Cleary who is believed to be involved with a distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the British Serious Organized Crime
Agency (SOCA) website and similar attacks against music industry sites.
Cleary was arrested late Monday. The group LulzSec, which has been
grabbing headlines for a series of attacks against various sites, has
claimed responsibility for the SOCA attack, which has authorities hoping
that Cleary's arrest will lead them to other group members. LulzSec has
made several statements on Twitter distancing itself from Cleary. The
charges include conspiring to construct a botnet, and making, adapting,
supplying or offering to supply a botnet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13879678
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/22/ryan_cleary_charged/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217858/U.K._police_charge_hacker_linked_to_LulzSec?taxonomyId=17
–Two Scareware Rings Busted in Worldwide Operation
(June 22 & 23, 2011)
Law enforcement authorities seized servers and bank accounts in raids
at various locations around the world, targeting two different scareware
crime rings as part of an investigation dubbed Operation Trident
Tribunal. The groups had earned a combined US $74 million from their
operations. The raids on homes and server farms in the US were
coordinated with similar raids by authorities in the UK, Netherlands,
Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, France and Sweden.
[Brian Krebs did a very nice piece highlighting that the Security
Service of Ukraine claim the criminals used Conficker to deploy the
scareware which was then used to defraud the victims
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/06/72m-scareware-ring-used-conficker-worm/ ]
https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/scareware-raid/
http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/FBI-shuts-down-72M-scareware-ring-1266520.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13887152
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/23/fbi_scareware_arrests/
http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/department-of-justice-disrupts-international-cybercrime-rings-distributing-scareware
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2081085/fbi-seizes-servers-operation-trident-tribunal-scareware-crackdown
[Editor's Note (Honan): Well done to all involved in this operation. It
is heartening amidst all the headlines focusing on criminals breaking
into systems to see cooperation like this amongst different law
enforcement agencies resulting in arrests and hopefully convictions.]
