back to article Anonymous plans DDoS attack on GCHQ in snoop law protest

The Home Office website is back online following a weekend of disruptive denial-of-service attacks by Anonymous. The hacktivist collective also launched traffic-flooding assaults against the official website of the UK prime minister, number10.gov.uk, and the UK's Ministry of Justice as part of a protest against the UK's …

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  1. Silverburn

    OK

    I'd wager the websites/servers were "easy", what with being out on the periphery (probably not even there - probably 3rd party hosted), and deemed "expendable".

    Lets see them get to the core network. That'll get them real kudos. And hunted to the ends of the Earth.

    1. I think so I am?
      Trollface

      Re: OK

      or stuck inside a suite case in the bath

    2. T J
      Mushroom

      Re: OK

      Agreed. This has been script kiddies and armchair beardstrokers attacking badly secured webservers so far - BIG. DEAL. But sooner or later somebody in there might actually attack something more substantial, though if they are smart - egos are traditionally the letdown of the real hacker - they will tell nobody about it.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attacking what is basically GCHQ's recruitment webpage.

    Yea that'll have some impact <insert rolleye smiley here>.

    I'd expect some honeypots to be ready and waiting too.

    Top result hacking China too <insert a second rolleye smiley here>

    D- Must try harder.

  3. Blunderbuss
    WTF?

    Trying to hack the experts?

    I don't know much about "hacking" but surely rallying a bunch of script kiddies mixed with hard-core hackers to attack the experts in countering this sort of behaviour is asking for the less able hackers to be found out and prosecuted.

    At least attempting to hack the Chinese isn't generally going to generate a knock on the door from the rozzers or worse (though if you REALLY annoyed them, it might be much, much worse).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trying to hack the experts?

      "At least attempting to hack the Chinese isn't generally going to generate a knock on the door"

      Yes, that only happens if it is the US, currently.

    2. I think so I am?

      Re: Trying to hack the experts?

      Maybe the "hard-core hackers" are looking for obscurity in numbers?

    3. Usually Right or Wrong

      Re: Trying to hack the experts?

      Well minister, as we no longer need that £100m set aside for the GCHQ hacking defence exercise, can it go into our pension pot?

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Boffin

        Re: Trying to hack the experts?

        "....as we no longer need that £100m set aside...." But actually that is a big problem. DDoS "attacks" are just a waste of everyones' money, especially the taxpayers. They're not real "attacks", they're the Internet equivalent of playing your ghettoblaster too loud, below even the digital graffiti of web defacement. All this type of senseless vandalism does is mean more money is taken from other projects and poured into widening front-end bandwidth to guard against skiddie idiocy, and Police time is wasted trying to sort the LOIC-fodder muppets from the real numpties pulling the strings. Next time you're in a queue to get an operation on the NHS, don't forget to thank the Anonyputzs. Next time your friend gets mugged in an area with bad streetlighting, you can thank them again. Anons - doing it because they're stupid.

    4. Nigel 11
      Big Brother

      Re: Trying to hack the experts?

      I wonder if we'll get to find out who has the upper hand in this arms race? I'm not convinced that it's possible for even a state to catch a clued-up and paranoid hacker who is merely launching DoS attacks on an internet address from bots. (The real spy-secret kit is doubtless a much harder target, heavily firewalled and hardened or entirely off-net).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        Re: Trying to hack the experts?

        "entirely off net"

        That can't be for the obvious reason that they need to collect data to do their job. So you could think of DOSing them by sending PDFs with some exploits which will do funny things inside their collection/filtering infrastructure. If you are lucky and capable, your software might even report back to you.

        Just find an exploit in libpoppler or Libreoffice and I am sure you are in that game. Just broadcast the funny stuff via SATCOM.

  4. Gordon 10
    FAIL

    Timing

    Whats with the weekend attacks? It hardly strikes me as a peak time for anyone.

    I bet they barely bothered getting the HO BOFH out of bed. Probably left it to the PFY.

  5. Zmodem

    add threads per ip and ness around with http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/worker.html

  6. mark l 2 Silver badge

    dont worry with the governments net snooping plans they soon have all the records of everyone whos taken part in the ddos attacks recorded in real time.

    Sure it will be worth every penny of the 2 billion of tax payers money

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Script kiddies

    Why call them hacktivists, hackers or anything remotely like that. They are nothing more than a few idiots who know how to download and run scripts.

    What is needed is a derogatory word (whether made up or not) that sums up exactly what these morons are.

    Any ideas?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Script kiddies

      morons?

    2. Chris Miller

      Re: Script kiddies

      Skiddies will do until something better comes along. Mounting a DDoS attack is the computer security equivalent of ringing the doorbell then running away.

      1. Mark 65

        Re: Script kiddies

        @Chris Miller: It's a bit more complicated than that if you had to assemble the bot net first. Anyone who takes part using their own IP address is just a tool.

      2. I think so I am?
        IT Angle

        Re: Script kiddies

        If your network is configured securely the bell shouldn't even ring, a switch or firewall should just drop the traffic.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gee

    Taking a pop at GCHQ is kinda interesting. But then again so is sneaking up on a polar bear.

    My money is on GCHQ, or the polar bear. Whichever is attacked first.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Gee

      I was thinking that when I read it. My skills in this area are shockingly amateur, but even good ones will find it kind of like...

      Wrapping your hands in bandages, and trying to pickpocket John Gotti, or,

      deliberately throwing a pint over Zara Philips on a night out with her husband and his mates or,

      shooting at children in Hereford town centre,

      However, it will make for a good showing on the Darwin Awards next year.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Gee

        you had me at "shooting at children in Hereford town centre"

  9. Silverburn

    DoS != hacking

    Worth bearing in mind from the article is that it's only DoS that's been demostrated so far, which is hardly hacking and is relatively easy to arrange.

    I suspect DoS was rated as low risk by HO IT Sec , so there's been no mitigation in place until now. I suspect that'll change in future now.

    Once they can deface the sites, then we'll see. They'd still have to hack into core (as per my comments above) for this to be credible.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attack the GCHQ site?

    I mean, come on guys, is that really a sensible course to take?

    Listen to Gary's mum and take heed.

  11. Joe 48
    FAIL

    GCHQ core

    The website will be no where near GCHQ's core networks. They'll have multiple networks for all sorts of different information levels. Physically separated too.

    Any idiot can run a script. I expect you'd have to be in the building to gain access to half of GCHQ's top level networks.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: GCHQ core

      "building" - think you mean underground bunker

      1. Joe 48

        Re: GCHQ core

        No bunker in Cheltenham. They do tours of the 'local' computer suite for family members of employee's. Elsewhere in the Uk though who knows ;) Corsham has an underground bunker that I think holds top secret info. Can't confirm if its GCHQ or Military, as I don't know. Its where Skynet lives I think. That's not a joke either, its really what the military called their satellite system.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: GCHQ core

          "Corsham has an underground bunker that I think holds top secret info"

          It wasn't ya'lls. It was American technically but run under a NATO mandate. Had something to do with ACE HIGH and AUTOVON. Which is precisely as far as Im going with this. I doubt there's anything there thats still secret unless its been repurposed.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What? Pretend you have Asperger's.

  13. Cliff

    The people not to piss off, surely?

    I mean, GCHQ? Really?! I would not consider myself the smartest or most anonymous Anonymous if I actively tried to piss off the boys with the BIG toys. You don't throw pebbles at the guy with a gun.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good deal

    More Anon members to do the Perp walk soon.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's all good

    This just makes it easier to find the criminals and send them to prison.

  16. W.O.Frobozz
    Thumb Down

    Yeah, right

    And how do we know these clowns aren't working for the feds, just like LoserSec was? Very convenient...these 4chan script kiddies "create a problem" which justifies a massive crackdown on the internet as a whole.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pissin up a rope

    Anon is pretty much just pissin up a rope.

  18. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Wow, that'll show 'em!

    NOT

  19. IT Hack
    Pint

    If GCHQ can't mitigate a D/DOS then I would be even more worried about our security services...as it is they can't seem to keep track of their own code breakers.

    Its nice to have a pint while watching the fireworks.

    1. Joe 48

      Why bother spending money protecting an external website from D/DOS for something that only happens every now and again. Just let it get attacked and log as much information as possible for looking at later.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Two pints, thanks

    Does Anon really think DDoS achieve any good?

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