back to article Anons escape human sewer after billionaire bog roll blag

A denial-of-service attack that knocked a Koch-owned subsidiary offline in 2011 has earned its perpetrators probations and hefty fines. Twenty-four-year-old Iowan Jacob Wilkins was sentenced in a US federal court in Green Bay on February 14 for the attack, and will have to find $110,932 to pay restitution to Koch Industries. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Ashton Black

    DDoS

    Something I've always wanted to know. What's the point of a DDoS on a website?

    Now I can understand a bank/credit card DDoS, that's going to cost money and potentially business, but a site like this?

    I mean, I think of it like blocking the door of a building, for a while, till the people inside call for security. Once they arrive, business as usual.

    I suppose it could be used as cover for a deeper attack, gaining potential information, but other than that?

    Seems like an awful risk for very little reward, as it were.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: DDoS

      Unless it's to make political statement: Down with the wipies!

      1. Fatman

        Re: Unless it's to make political statement:

        Perhaps the miscreants are simply expressing their opinion of the Koch brothers by the selection of the 'target' - a Koch company that makes toilet paper ass wipes, by equating them (the Koches) with the residue their product removes.

    2. MrDamage Silver badge

      What's the point of a DDoS on a website?

      Whats the point of a boxer training against a bag that doesnt hit back?

      Whats the point of learning to meditate to find inner peace in a silent, peaceful environment, instead of a bustling, crowded room where you are more likely to need it?

      To hone your skills, and possibly observe something which may have gone undetected otherwise.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What's the point of a DDoS on a website?

        > To hone your skills,

        It doesn't take much skill to run a script.

      2. Chris G

        Re: What's the point of a DDoS on a website?

        Probably something to do with this kind of thing http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/about

        The Koch brothers spend a lot of money support far right politics and lobbying, if the Global Military Industrial Complex conspiracy exists then they are amongst those running it.

    3. Mark 85

      Re: DDoS

      I'm thinking it's partly to say they could do it. The other part is harassment. It kills access during the attack and gets the IT staff scrambling.

      Interesting that the cost to Koch was slightly less than a dollar per packet they were hit with although some of that cost was probably some tightening up of the defenses and maybe some firewall/software.

    4. silent_count

      Re: DDoS

      "What's the point of a DDoS on a website?"

      It's vandalism by an attacker too cowardly to go to and throw a rock through the target's window.

      I'm not even convinced about the "DoS as misdirection to disguise a more sophisticated attack" thing. I mean, a sophisticated attacker wouldn't be inclined to announce their arrival.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: DDoS

        "What's the point of a DDoS on a website?"

        Alternatively, it's a classic sit-in/occupy or the electronic equivilent of a group of protesters standing outside your shop/office doors waving placards and stopping people going in.

        Capitalism first court systems are making all forms of protest against the money state illegal. Soon you won't be able to protest about anything, protesting in numbers greater than one will be a criminal offence and those protesting alone will just get beaten up. Police tactics (kettling, extereme surveilence, armoured officers with obscured numbers/identifiers, no charges made against police when protesters are injured or killed) at demonstrations are designed to frighten first timers, so they never protest again.

        1. Oninoshiko

          Re: DDoS

          Except it's not a protest, they two aren't even remotely comparable. When one has a sit-in, they normally have signs or shirts or someone telling bystanderds what it was about.

          This doesn't have any of that. If you want to protest then protest. Go to:

          4111 E 37th St. North

          Witchita, KS

          and start sitting. That is a protest, a DDoS is not, because it doesn't raise any kind of awareness of anything.

        2. Gray
          Big Brother

          Re: DDoS

          protesting in numbers greater than one will be a criminal offence and those protesting alone will just get beaten up.

          Those gathered in numbers greater than one will be regarded as domestic terrorists and will be dealt with accordingly; understanding, of course, that civil rights protections are the privilege of the normal criminal class and are not/never to be applied to domestic terrorism participants.

          Protests and complaints to civil authorities regarding perceived armored/masked police brutality are encouraged as an aid to identify those participants captured in video surveillance but not yet labeled for domestic subversives watch lists.

    5. Turtle

      Re: DDoS

      "Something I've always wanted to know. What's the point of a DDoS on a website?"

      DDos'ing this particular toilet paper website? Well the perps were naturally attracted to it because they're assholes. And the point was to advertise that fact and get legal recognition of it.

      So... success!

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: DDoS

      The Koch brothers own Koch industries which has fingers in many pies, such as petroleum, chemicals, minerals, finance and many other areas. They spend many millions of dollars lobbying for such things as trying to roll back reproduction rights (stop the morning after pill and such being available) and also trying to take away rights from unions. When you have a close look at this multinational it is easy to see why it became an Anonymous target.

      Once you see all the political power this company holds, it's easy to see how they won these silly damages for a simple DDoS attack which would have cost them nothing but a few hours without their website if they had done nothing. A sit in protest at a shop to stop customers entering would actually cost the company a few bob in lost sales but no one has ever been fined for lost sales in that sort of protest as far as I know. So $120k for taking a website offline that was only for information shows the clout this political company and it's army of lawyers are capable of.

      Their website was down for a total of 15 minutes, so almost 10k fine per minute of downtime.

  2. cortland

    Bruit it, don't do it.

    Just discuss *hypothetically* making a DDOS attack without actually acting on it; let the rumournet alarm the target so he'll needlessly spend money.

  3. Miek
    Linux

    Wow, I hope we see the security services subjected to the same treatment as these guys for breaking the exact same laws.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $183,000 consultantancy fee

    $183,000 Koch Industries spent on a consultant to defend its sites.

    I'm obviously in the wrong job!

    Even if it included some hardware it seems a tad high.

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