Security Researcher Warns of Hyperlink based DDoS attack

[Sam_Reynolds]

A security consultant with Sophos systems is warning that users may be inadvertently participating in the DDoS assault against various .gov websites by clicking on a link being circulated by the hacker collective.

Read more here: Security Researcher Warns of Hyperlink based DDoS attack | Hardware Canucks

[Perineum]

I need to find some of those links and click 'em.

[geokilla]

Originally Posted by Perineum

I need to find some of those links and click 'em.

Once you find them, PM me. I need to join in too.

[chrisk]

I think its hypocritical of these guys to trick people into joining their 'fight.' They think they have the moral high ground, but they certainly lose it by tactics like this.

[Avenger212]

OO.. I was doing some background research. Even though I have not clicked on their links directly I went into the New Zealand Parliament (which they hacked early last year) and there was news about them. I did click the YouTube video but had not clicked anything else. If I was "Infected" what is the best course of action? will re-installing Firefox work and clear everything back to default? (Assuming I am using Mac OS X)

[Arinoth]

Hasn't this threat existed for years but no one has ever bothered to exploit it? Or am I thinking of some other trivial exploit out there?

[JD]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Hasn't this threat existed for years but no one has ever bothered to exploit it? Or am I thinking of some other trivial exploit out there?

It's been known of since Anonymous/Lulzsec started becoming popular I'd say. If I recall, it initially targeted Mac OSX since it's an easier target, then it moved to Windows. As such, I believe back then it was an actual program/malware that had to be installed unknowingly, now it seems they've upgraded to a pure JavaScript version.

I don't believe it does any harm to your computer though, it's effectively just pinging a server non-stop. Maybe a minor reduction in network performance, but it shouldn't be too large.

It just goes to show that the government doesn't listen to it's citizens and I believe that's the point they're attempting to make. Perhaps it's not the most legal way of going about things, but last I checked it wasn't illegal to visit a website.

[Shadowmeph]

the Internet is so old that there is no true security .