Quote:“I’m all for taking down al-Qaeda websites. Shutting down enemy propaganda is a reasonable course of action. Al-Qaeda is very good at [information warfare on the internet], so we need to catch up. The US needs to lift its game,” he said.Lots of frightening questions here. Are we all fine with taking down terrorist websites? Who is the US government's definition of "al-Qaeda"? What happens if the web server is in another country? Does the US have the right to screw with the DNS servers to try and black-hole these machines then?
Psyops + Internet: Hooray!
Author
[Fair disclosure: I found this article on Slashdot. There's likely some kind of insanotron sensationalization here]
It looks like the US government is planning to start a war on the Internet in the form of psy-ops (information warfare).
Quote:Original post by RavuyaDoes the US have the right to screw with the DNS servers to try and black-hole these machines then?
What can they do anyway ? I'm pretty sure terrorists don't post on the www.terrorismr0x0rs.com forums... There's nothing the US can do short of a China-like firewall (and it would only work from within the country). They're trying to fight the Internet's original and most important basic design: To be a mesh that can survive the loss of any node...
couldn't they DOS whatever site was the problem, though?
However, its a little worrisome that they would be apt to do something that would be illegal for any civilian to do. I mean, where's the accountability?
However, its a little worrisome that they would be apt to do something that would be illegal for any civilian to do. I mean, where's the accountability?
Quote:Original post by jfclavetteThe master DNS servers are in the US. It'd be trivial to block the domain name for a particular server by having the master DNS servers return a "not found" response instead of a "redirect" response. It's not a perfect denial of service, but it'd be more difficult to get to the site if you must remeber it's IP. Of course, such action could also prompt the EU to set up it's own master servers, which would be difficult but not impossible (the hard part would be ensuring all requests go to the new master servers, and would likely involve most high-tier bandwidth providers).Quote:Original post by RavuyaDoes the US have the right to screw with the DNS servers to try and black-hole these machines then?
What can they do anyway ? I'm pretty sure terrorists don't post on the www.terrorismr0x0rs.com forums... There's nothing the US can do short of a China-like firewall (and it would only work from within the country). They're trying to fight the Internet's original and most important basic design: To be a mesh that can survive the loss of any node...
They could do a whole lot more than DOS a server... They could infultrate and compromise whole al-Qaeda networks. Hax0r Special-Ops anyone? OOOOOOOOHHHHHH... this brings new meaning to "spyware"!
I can see the popups now...
"WARNING! Your system may have an evil al-Queda virus! Click Here to download Uncle Sam's anti-spyware client and browser plugin"
I can see the popups now...
"WARNING! Your system may have an evil al-Queda virus! Click Here to download Uncle Sam's anti-spyware client and browser plugin"
Quote:Original post by ExtrariusQuote:Original post by jfclavetteThe master DNS servers are in the US. It'd be trivial to block the domain name for a particular server by having the master DNS servers return a "not found" response instead of a "redirect" response. It's not a perfect denial of service, but it'd be more difficult to get to the site if you must remeber it's IP. Of course, such action could also prompt the EU to set up it's own master servers, which would be difficult but not impossible (the hard part would be ensuring all requests go to the new master servers, and would likely involve most high-tier bandwidth providers).Quote:Original post by RavuyaDoes the US have the right to screw with the DNS servers to try and black-hole these machines then?
What can they do anyway ? I'm pretty sure terrorists don't post on the www.terrorismr0x0rs.com forums... There's nothing the US can do short of a China-like firewall (and it would only work from within the country). They're trying to fight the Internet's original and most important basic design: To be a mesh that can survive the loss of any node...
Remembering a single rogue IP who, in turn, would give you back another IP address (preferably hidden in a real commercial website) for the 'server of the day' would be dead simple and effective enough to foil the US government. They would most likely target the website with real content (at which point you put another up and update the IP address on the rogue server).
Think 'my very own not-so-DNS server'. Plus redundancy is easy and cheap. Let's just hope men in black won't be coming to knock on my door now...
Quote:Original post by Chokki
However, its a little worrisome that they would be apt to do something that would be illegal for any civilian to do.
That seems to be the primary function of a government. The bastards.
Quote:Original post by furby100
That seems to be the primary function of a government. The bastards.
Uhm actually I thouoght the primary function of a government was to protect and ensure the welfare of it's citizens, as well as to be a conduit for their will.
The Army, Marines, and the NSA already have digital warfare teams, patriotic black hat crackers that are ready to shut down websites ran by "enemies of the state," crack bank accounts to dry up funds (unfortunately al-Qaeda uses mostly personal courier and cash, no banks involved).
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