Security expert takes on the hackers... and loses
A 13-year-old hacker brought down the popular security site, grc.com with a Denial of Service attack involving 474 seperate computers. The hacker, going by the name of 'wicked', flooded GRC's server with thousands of packets of data. The owner, Steve Gibson, looked on in alarm as it dropped off the Web. The first attack made the site inaccessible for 17 hours.
None of the ISP's Gibson contacted were any help, and even the FBI said there was nothing it could do. As the attacks continued, Gibson set up a filter to block the flood. Using a second computer as bait, he discovered a trojan controlled from a channel on IRC. The hackers were using innocent Web users' computers to launch organised attacks.
It appeared that wicked was angry and that Gibson had been calling other hackers 'script kiddies' - a derogatory term for hackers who can't write their own tools. Gibson then spoke to b0ss, a hacker in the IRC channel he had discovered. b0ss was very worried that an outsider had discovered their hideout, and after this encounter the attacks stopped.
Unfortunately, after Gibson published a lengthy article on his troubles, the attacks resumed. He then posted an open letter to hackers, pleading with them to stop. "I surrender right now, unconditionally," he wrote. "And I'm not kidding."
Source: Novatech
