Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: DOS, Australia, Anonymous, Attack, Government | Themes: The Internet, Software, Networking, Business
Anonymous apparently tired of attacking the Church of Scientology and has set its sights on the Australian government.
Earlier today, the Australian Attorney General's Department (AGD) revealed that it was aware of a denial-of-service attack planned on the government's web servers. A group of online pranksters, called "Anonymous," made the threat on YouTube last month, and plans the launch the DoS attack tonight at 6PM EST / 3PM PST. Apparently the attack serves as a protest against the government's mandatory ISP filtering proposal.
"The Australian Federal Police are leading the investigation into these cyberattacks," an AGD spokesperson told ZDNet Australia. "The government considers cybersecurity to be one of Australia's top national security priorities, as expressed by the prime minister in his National Security Statement last year."
As reported by ZDNet Australia, Anonymous has achieved some online notoriety for its previous attacks against the Church of Scientology website. In this case, the group promises that it will not hold back from an attack unless the government changes its tune in regards to the proposal. The AGD has contacted all agencies believed to be likely targets, including the Department of Broadband Communications, the Australian Communications, and many other sites.
An unnamed network security professional told ZDNet that the group isn't really a threat. "The whole Anonymous thing is fanciful garbage," the source said. "As a group, it's not to be taken seriously."
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haha lol gj
well the Austrailian goverment may be under estimating this group...
I assume they mean DDoS attack. A simple DoS attack is of such a low threat level that any firewall on the market can automatically block it. Regardless, a DDoS attack against government offices in Australia isn't likely to be terribly menancing. Being an island continent means that their data trunks are grouped and it is easy enough to filter out all non-local traffic. Therefore, only local zombies would be an issue and much easier to deal with.
As for the script kiddies in Anonymous... survey says: FREE TIME.
They're not randomly targeting Australia. Australia has denied their country service to Anonymous' gathering site. It's simply a retaliation.
down with the australian government, they are becoming like the chines government, or one closer to home for me, cuba....
LOL
and
LOL.
There is that word again.
master exon: it's kevin...
I assume they mean DDoS attack. A simple DoS attack is of such a low threat level that any firewall on the market can automatically block it. Regardless, a DDoS attack against government offices in Australia isn't likely to be terribly menancing. Being an island continent means that their data trunks are grouped and it is easy enough to filter out all non-local traffic. Therefore, only local zombies would be an issue and much easier to deal with.As for the script kiddies in Anonymous... survey says: FREE TIME.
including traffic from hosts they can not block? any decent swarm has hosts in as many networks as possible and commercial and 'secure' networks aren't excluded from this... sure they could fend off the attack but they'll also isolate themselves from all inbound traffic if these guys are half as able as they seem to be. the filtering will make the attack smaller but it will still do wot the attackers want and that is to cause chaos for australian internet users...
we all know that all government are becoming "dictators"
"Getting rid of freedom little by little"
getting more and more enslave by work and make less money
Just a question of time before they form a world government and then say good buy to freedom, hello to enslavement
including traffic from hosts they can not block? any decent swarm has hosts in as many networks as possible and commercial and 'secure' networks aren't excluded from this... sure they could fend off the attack but they'll also isolate themselves from all inbound traffic if these guys are half as able as they seem to be. the filtering will make the attack smaller but it will still do wot the attackers want and that is to cause chaos for australian internet users...
Why would they not be able to block traffic from any particular host?
iptables -I INPUT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -j DROP
We will assume that the vast majority of Australian government web servers are there to serve Australians, so you could safely block all non-local IPs causing only a minor inconvenience. You then just need to stay on top of the local zombies and block them as they are identified. It's far easier for them (the Aussies) to defend against, than the US government or Facebook, where your sphere of traffic is expected to be global thus making it impossible to block traffic preemptively.
You don't need a fucking internet! So stop acting like a cyber attack equals murder!
Don't get an IP, and don't go online,and all the cyberfuk can be done around you, will not affect you!
Unless you're stupid enough to connect your nuke silo's to the internet too!
jellico: Australians exist outside of the physical continent of Australia... their websites need to be accessible to more than just Australians either way... and what about the Australians that wish to access sites on net ranges that are filtered because zombies reside on them?
That's 7PM EDT / 4PM PDT for those of you who are still in the month of September where we are still on Daylight Saving Time.
jellico: Australians exist outside of the physical continent of Australia... their websites need to be accessible to more than just Australians either way... and what about the Australians that wish to access sites on net ranges that are filtered because zombies reside on them?
This is simple pragmatism: you take defensive measures which will inconvenience a small number of people, but preserve services for the majority. Or you do nothing, because the servers need to be there for the people outside of Australia... then the DDoS hits. It overwhelms the servers, and now nobody has access.
A DDoS is a primitive, yet insidious attack. It is precisely because people unwittingly participate, via their zombie computers, that it is effective. Consider this: if you have a terrorist who is threatening to blow up something because he is a true believe, or one who is threatening to blow something up because his family is being held hostage and he has no choice, it makes no difference to the defenders. You shoot the guy in the head because it is what you have to do. It's as simple as that.
"Anonymous apparently tired of attacking the Church of Scientology and has set its sights on the Australian government."
Wow! This writing is just horrible. Try: "Anonymous, apparently tired of attacking the Church of Scientology, has set its sights on the Australian government."
Even I have better proofreading skills than the people who work here and that is really sad considering I have no interest in writing anything (yeah that's right, I've lost interest in this comment already).
good on em! I'm from Australia, and we all hate the idea of a filter, from users, to isps, to every other person with a bit of sense, we all hate it!
good on em! I'm from Australia, and we all hate the idea of a filter, from users, to isps, to every other person with a bit of sense, we all hate it!
Oh no the Aussies are gonna get you for sayin that, lol. There goes his Internet connection.
So they are attempting to take down government web sites that are mostly useless... And during offpeak... Good luck making a point with that one. You would gain more attention hitting porn sites.
lol phail article thats not the name of the group.
ROFLMAO Anon? You HAVE to be kidding. I know two members of Anon and they don't know ANYTHING about computers. ...Skids
jellico, I admire your effort, you are a little off though. You speak truth, but don't have the right angle. In this particular case, Australia is vulnerable to a decent sized attack because their internet backbones are limited to a handfull of connections outside the continent (those connections are ANALOG still, the fiber line network running from Maui to the Aussies is not yet complete). Once those lines to the outside are completely JAMMED with traffic, people, businesses, will be affected. Bank transfers, youtube, etc.
Granted, from what I hear the worst of it only lasts a few hours.
I should clarify my previous statement by emphasizing the "with a bit of sense" part.
there is an online poll on the Australian msn at the moment and its currently 50-50 for support for the "internet censorship scheme"
unfortunately there are alot of unknolegeable, lazy parents out there who just hear "it will protect my children? well, that means less parenting for me! i'll take it!".
its the same story with the R18+ rating for games issue.
just the type of shit you have to put up with in Australia.
andesdsrgfh, please do a bit more reading before you wiggle your fingers. The Southern Cross cable is by far one of the largest bandwidth cables in the world. It also provides a large portion of the bandwidth that is available to the US west coast. Then there are several smaller cables, linking AUS to Japan, Singapore, HK, Korea, etc. Sorry, we haven't provided a link to Maui yet, but you should be able to use the back-haul via the US west coast. Not our fault that US providers do not want to upgrade, is it?
BTW, the Prime Minister's website was down for a while this AM, no other site that I am aware of. Could be that the AFP (or ASIO) were using the site as a 'honeypot', so left it unprotected...
When your country has an internet filter, you know you've lost your freedom of speech and alot of other human rights.
Fuck the governments and their corrupt corporate counterparts.
PS. If governments really wanted to make the internet safe for their country, they'd discus an International NATO agreement to give police, FBI, etc, additional powers allowing to hack into suspects computers containing child porn etc.
I really don't see why they wouldn't look into another avenue than filtering the whole god dam internet.
PS. If governments really wanted to make the internet safe for their country, they'd discus an International NATO agreement to give police, FBI, etc, additional powers allowing to hack into suspects computers containing child porn etc.I really don't see why they wouldn't look into another avenue than filtering the whole god dam internet.
Oh dead god, please tell me you're NOT serious! Would you really want to give ANY government carte blanche to hack into the computers of private citizens? If you did, all of a sudden, EVERYONE would be suspected of having child porn on their computer. And if you're someone they don't like, then you WILL end up with child porn on your computer (hell, they can do that now, it just requires a more concerted effort). If we've learned anything from history it is that no group can be trusted with that kind of power. It should be given, only when absolutely necessary, limited as much as possible, and the practitioners should be scrutinized and viewed with suspicion.
There is that word again.
Are you anti-apparently?
Lol? wtf?
shut up about the child porn already. this filter has nothing to do with it!
this filter was initially disguised as blocking child porn sites, hence the famous (yet obtuse) quote by Stephen Conroy "Surely you're not supporting child porn/pedophilia".
the truth quickly surfaced that this filter is all about information control.
Ouch. The score is now possibly going to be:
Hackers: 2
Australia Gov't:-100
See: http://www.dailytech.com/Australia [...] e16023.htm
PWN3D!
They may be script kiddys but many script kidys do pack a punch.