Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexggordon | Hacker News Reader

I'm always a little bit fascinated by these sorts of attacks.

On one hand, I guess I understand (yet don't condone) the motivation for the 'vigilante' justice they're trying to do. On the other, I really don't understand what benefit you can get from attacking Xbox, then Sony, and finally Tor.

When I think of the people doing this, I tend to think of them as understanding the importance of Tor and the benefit of anonymity it brings. However, here are people doing a DDOS attack (obviously illegal) trying to bring down the biggest illegal goods marketplace on the internet.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but outside of attention, I really don't understand any logical reason for this happening, and that really makes me dismiss any message they may have. I can comprehend being motivated by anger or some event, or just being a douchey company, but I just really don't understand what anyone besides the US Government would gain by attacking Tor.

View on HN

I personally think they're trying to get attention for themselves to build reputation and perhaps land some sort of job / payout.

Well based on what they did, they obviously can't advertise their work. They also won't have any interest in working for SV companies. The only kind of job they are after is in the black market (organized crime and intelligence).

This. Another possibility I've considered is that they obviously wouldn't be able to get a job at any SV company, but perhaps when applying for the Chinese NSA, maybe hacking Sony is something you can put on your resume?

I guess I'm not sure, but my guess is there could be a few entities outside the US that would appreciate that kind of skill.

You can't even get into intelligence anymore after doing this, lol. They'd never pass the background checks.

not officially anyway...

They hire contractors. Most intelligence works are "outsourced." http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/nsa-leaks-put-focus-o...

A plausible example is hiring a team to DDoS another State-sponsored infrastructure from outside of U.S. soil. Or hire some elite crackers to write custom software for them.

You still get investigated even if you are a contractor. I know many of them firsthand, and they tell me that contractors are put under additional scrutiny, actually. You need a high-level clearance for this sort of work done on behalf of the government, regardless of your employer.

Glad to know, but I still feel some of contract works require high-level clearance or background check.

If they just need a crack tool, they just need an agent to pay someone to write the tool and that doesn't give away information. Maybe I am spoiled by TV shows how they contact elite hackers in the black market.

Yeah, there's a lot more bureaucracy involved. I know people who used to work at these sorts of places. It's a wonder that anything gets accomplished, at all.

Or they're just sociopathic and sadistic and actually enjoy what they are doing. Wouldn't be the first time a DDOS was done just for the lulz.

That seems to be part of their motivation. From a recent interview published at http://www.dailydot.com/technology/lizard-squad-hackers

“Microsoft and Sony are fucking retarded, literally monkeys behind computers,” Omari said. “They would have better luck if they actually hired someone who knew what they were doing. Like, if they went around prisons and hired people who were convicted for stuff like this, they would have a better chance at preventing attacks.”

“If I was working [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget, I could totally stop these attacks,” Cleary claimed. “I’d buy more bandwidth, some specific equipment, and configure it correctly. It’s just about programming skill. With an attack of this scale, it could go up to the millions. But that’s really no problem for Sony and Microsoft.”

"If I get caught, then I get caught. Maybe I'll end up serving time, or maybe I'll end up helping companies, help them get better I guess."

Apparently Kim Dotcom gave them 3,000 MegaUpload accounts to stop. After that they claim to have halted the attacks. They have somewhat of an incentive now to DDoS internet services and wait to see if someone will give them goodies in exchange to stop this.

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/548305704776241152

according to this article they sold off the accounts and then continued the attacks.

http://www.dailydot.com/technology/lizard-squad-hackers/

> I really don't understand any logical reason for this happening,

Maybe it is the federal government trying to bolster their case for stronger control of the internet with a false flag operation.

For the record I'm not a conspiracy nut, but at the same time, given what we know about our government now and in the past, I can't completely dismiss the possibility.

Knowing the people behind the attacks personally, I can ensure you this isn't the case. They're simply kids with too much free time and a yearning for attention.

If you're curious about validating this first hand, some of the members are active over at digitalgangster.com to give you an idea of the level of sophistication.

The Internet was designed to withstand a nuclear attack and due to people intent on centralizing services, we have services taken down by nerds. I hope Tor ends up being resilient because it's also used by folks in oppressed countries.

> anyone besides the US government

How about China, the EU, and ISIS/ISIL (if they even have any technology whatsoever)?

Because sometimes desk jockeys within the IT world put on their blue collar, settle for a mediocre salary, grow 4-6 pant sizes, and think "this is good enough"

Up until new blood walks up, points out a flaw, and fucks shit up because the "senior" desk jockey can barely squirm out of his $1000 computer chair to reach his keyboard.

That's just my take on it, if Lizard Squad states that it has taken them minimal effort to setup these attacks; then what's stopping a larger organization from doing such things?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com