Tis the Season of DDoS – WikiLeaks Edition

[kenc51]

DDoS attacks are flying across the Internet like there is no tomorrow. Just a few days ago, a hacktivist operating under the handle “th3j35t3r” decided to single-handedly take down the Wikileaks website with a DoS tool of his (or their) own creation. He issued a statement on Twitter shortly after explaining that the attacks against the WikiLeaks website were made for “attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, ‘other assets’ & foreign relations.” According to our statistics, his attacks resulted in 1 day 3 hours and 50 minutes of downtime for WikiLeaks before the site was completely yanked offline by Amazon and EveryDNS.

On the other side of the attack spectrum, the anonymous attackers involved in Operation:Payback have vowed to take a temporary break from their mega-assault on the entertainment industry in order to spend some time helping WikiLeaks. Their first attack has been set on PayPal, after the U.S. based company closed its doors on WikiLeaks citing an AUP violoation.

More info here
http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/tis- ... itio/#lieb
Some backround on the "XerXeS " tool and "the infamous patriot-hacker known only as The Jester (th3j35t3r)" here
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/ ... lity-.html

Info on LIOIC here
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/12/what-is-loic/

& how to join in on the fun here
http://pastehtml.com/view/1c8i33u.html
A simple BASH script for Linux users

If you just want to see whats going on, follow this download link to gte a customised version of MiRC already configured to join the loic.AnonOps.net server
The "#loic" channel is the main one, with "#OperationPayback & #wikileaks" being other channels worth keeping an eye on.
http://www.mediafire.com/?94f34eonh4631mv

Currently the iRC server is being hammered by "patriot hackers" fighting back

[skier]

wikileaks is like the pirate bay, except no one wants wikileaks up, and it doesn't help anyone at all. shouldn't have ever existed if you ask me

[hark]

Wikileaks gives more transparency to the government, which is highly valuable. Don't believe the lies about endangering people's lives. What has been leaked has not endangered anyone's life. It's just a lie spread around in an attempt to undermine Wikileaks.

[skier]

i'm all for telling the public everything, but a lot of confidential things should be kept that way.

[hark]

Wikileaks filters what they leak so it's not like they just throw out whatever they can get without any consideration of the implications.

[pwcmed]

Here we go!

My issues with Wikileaks
No transparency, they preach it but the way they operate is far from that.
almost all of the leaks coming out are directed towards the US. There are far worse countries doing some really bad stuff. The only reason they are attacking the US is to get attention.
Wikifilters, if you want transparency disclose it all. By using these filters they are acknowledging that information needs to be classified.
Want transparency, follow the rules and use FOIA.
The last leak "from what I have read" puts everyone in danger. I am in military and not allowed to view these documents so I can only comment on what I read on CNN and MSNBC..

[kenc51]

Wikileaks "leak" info that's given to them.
It's well known that a US Army soldier gave them over 250K confidential documents, this is why most info coming out is against the US.

They have also released plently of stuff damning the UK & other governments, and even non-govt orgs to.
It's not anti-us, it's just happens that they have more secrets belonging to the US govt than anyone else.

In fact, most of the recent "leaks" were only sent to "reputable" press.
It has been the press who have chosen what to release to the public, not wikileaks

[hark]

Besides, even if the majority of leaks deal with the United States, they do happen to be the most influential government in the world.