We were attacked this past week....

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Metalman, Jun 21, 2014.

  1. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    This is pretty amazing to watch...

    Facebook came under attack by the Chinese last Thursday the 19th.... They went off the air due to DDOS attacks.... But within 30 minutes they were up and running...

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmJsENgG-o&app=desktop"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmJsENgG-o&app=desktop[/ame]
     
  2. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    I assume all that blue was massive amounts of.......what? emails? what exactly did they attack them with?

    Back in the bad old days when I used to get virus and spam and all that, I used to dream about being able to send something right back that would blow up the computers of the bad guys.

    wonder if Facebook could do that? :)
     
  3. 05r50

    05r50 Well-Known Member

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    In its simplest form data is broken down into packets to be transmitted across networks. The packets are re-assembled on the other end to be understood byt the receiver. Kinda like morse code is one letter at a time.

    In this case the bad guys were sending extremely large volumes of data to the host servers for Facebook. The type of data really isn't important. Their goal was to make Facebook drink from the Firehose until they couldn't take any more and then just collapse.

    Since the servers job is to respond to requests what happens is they get so bogged down in trying to deal with bad data that they cannot handle little suzie's request to "Like" Justin Bieber's new tattoo.
     
  4. old81

    old81 Club Coordinator
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    Justin has a new tattoo? :rolleyes:
     
  5. Dave.0

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    :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
     
  6. rkw

    rkw Well-Known Member

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    We were attacked this past week

    Facebook was attacked. Please don't equate it with "we". I'm not even on Facebook.
     
  7. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    -.. .. -.. / ... --- -- . / --- -. . / ... .- -.-- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .


    :devil:
     
  8. ZippyNH

    ZippyNH Well-Known Member

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    Newsflash!! MA NOW OWNS FACEBOOK?!
    kinds late for April fools jokes?
     
  9. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    Thanks for the explanation 05r50, I understand how the internet works (packets and so forth) but I was curious what they would be sending in such massive quantity, and how they coordinated it to happen at the same time?

    So to fix it, Facebook shut down and did what? Just excluded any requests from China, or just from those addresses?

    If the latter, couldn't they be vulnerable again, or did they write a patch that works something like what the stock market does when it senses a run and puts on the brakes?
     
  10. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Does anyone else think shutting down Facebook would be a bad idea?

    Maybe people would go outside and see other people.:aureola:
     
  11. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    Dave, you live on the forums...lol
     
  12. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Forums are not Facebook.
     
  13. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    I'm sure the reason the Chinese want to shut down FB is because it's a form of free speech / free thinking.... And that scares the bejesus out of the Chinese rulers..... Can't have the proletariat stepping out of line....

    Next thing..... the proletariat would be going outside, seeing other people...massing with them..... Causing problems.... Standing in front of tanks and stuff....
     
  14. Minidave

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    I don't understand all the hate for Facebook, it's a tool like anything else - you can use it for your benefit or not - your call. But calling for it's demise seems a bit of an extreme reaction, and I find the people most offended by it are those who have never used it! Huh? How does that work?

    To me that's like calling for the ban of cable companies when you don't have a TV.

    I like Facebook, because I get to see pics of my family and friends who travel or live all over the world. Yes there are other ways I could see them, but that would require a lot of effort on their part, to send emails to all of their friends and family - the Facebook forum is ubiquitous and so much easier to use.

    I do not post a pic of everyplace I go, or where I had lunch or what my sammich looked like, but I do put up the occasional short vid and pics of what I'm doing with Buzz and in return I get pics from friends and family all over the world - I can see no reason to ban that.

    Thru Facebook I've found lost friends, high school buddies, stayed in touch with distant family members, talked to cousins I never met and have opened friendships with people I never seen in person - like I have on this forum. I like that too.

    It is plagued with ads, and some people have decided to use it to post their views on politics and religion and so on - I simply check the "I don't want to see this" button and they're gone from my sight - what could be easier?

    Banning Facebook is not the answer, any more than banning TV because there's nothing intelligent on to watch.

    As for going outside and meeting people, that's a great idea...as soon as it cools off a bit so I don't suffer heatstroke 10 min after I step outside - of course all my neighbors are still indoors in the A/C anyway.....but I have met so many great friends thru my associations online - people I never would have known otherwise - I'm in awe of what a powerful thing the net has become to bring people together.
     
  15. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Dave I understand your point about Facebook, Google+ and possibly Twitter but the problem is when people are using them while driving.

    That part drives me nuts.
     
  16. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    Well then.....
    Ban driving.....


    Couldn't resist....:D
     
  17. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    Could not agree more!

    Last night while sitting at a red light a woman rolled thru the intersection in her giant Honda Oddity against the light, barely missing clipping a car making a turn with the green - and she never even looked up from yakking on the phone. I don't think she even knew she ran the light let alone almost killed someone.

    I don't Tweet, or do Google circles, between forums and Facebook I'm online aplenty.....but those additional sites don't bother me......

    Did you see where Ford is about to introduce a method of being able to text other cars? That's what we need more complicated distractions for the already driving challenged.....
     
  18. rkw

    rkw Well-Known Member

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    Denial of service attacks against many targets are being launched all day, every day. This one received more publicity because Facebook is a high visibility company, and it affected so many users.

    Coordinated attacks come from computers infected with viruses and malware that can be controlled remotely. Not to be melodramatic, but it's possible for any of us to have an infected computer that participates in an attack, and you wouldn't even know it is happening. An attacker may have millions of slave computers at their disposal, and merely has to send instructions for them to start attacking a target at the same time.

    China has a large number of unprotected, infected computers, and many attacks come from there, but it's very hard to trace who is actually in control. There is some reason to suspect the Chinese in the Facebook attack, but it could have been someone in, say, Russia or even a malicious teenager in the Midwest.

    Denial-of-service is now an underground business. You can hire someone to launch an attack on a target of your choice (such as a business competitor). It can be devastating for an online retailer. Denial-of-service ransom is also happening: If you ever want to get back online, pay us or else | Ars Technica
     
  19. ZippyNH

    ZippyNH Well-Known Member

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    #19 ZippyNH, Jun 22, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2014
    I would bet 10-1 it was not the "Chinese"....
    They are nearly home to a huge number of unpatched, often bootleg pirated version of windows and other software that are compromised by hackers.....
    You can buy use of these computers on the " dark web" sites by the 1000's for a few pennies each....
    If I was , say , a Russian mobster, and wanted Facebook to pay me a small fee to ensure they had no issues or was a hacker trying to make a name for myself....
    Just buy some computers....load the software...and command the zombie computers to pingvaway or send junk packets of various types to Facebook....
    The "we" part of the statement makes it sound like you believe it to be state sponsored....
    If it was, I think the Chinese are smart enough to use other computers for most if the pings/junk packets to avoid blame.....
    Sometimes the msinstreem media over simplfies stuff....the reality us most DOS attacks tend to be old school protection racket schemes or just a kid making a name for themselves....
    And to say Facebook is about freethinking ...er...lol...
    You know the NSA has offices in Facebook and was an early investor right? They are more big brother than perhaps anybody...heck their facial recognition software...big government...get folks to post their pictures....kinda like getting folks to carry around a GPS tracker with a microphone attached...that would be crazy!! Oops...I am using one...a cell phone...I am using one now...and while the basic software might be OK...the "baseband " chips under the basic operation system are much more of an issue and unpatchable....
    The deeper you look....
    The more you will see it is truly 1984.....
    I have to go...I left my tinfoil hat in the other room...
     
  20. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    It wasn't the Chinese, it was NAM!!!!!
     

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