Warned of an Attack on the Internet, and Getting Ready

The New York Times ^ | March 30, 2012 | By SOMINI SENGUPTA

[Oldeconomybuyer]

On a quiet Sunday in mid-February, something curious attracted the attention of the behind-the-scenes engineers who scour the Internet for signs of trouble. There, among the ubiquitous boasts posted by the hacking collective Anonymous, was a call to attack some of the network’s most crucial parts.

The message called it Operation Global Blackout, and rallied Anonymous supporters worldwide to attack the Domain Name System.

It declared when the attack would be carried out: March 31. And it detailed exactly how: by bombarding the Domain Name System with junk traffic in an effort to overwhelm it altogether.

[Right Wing Assault]

service could slow down in places that have narrow bandwidth to begin with — much of sub-Saharan Africa, for instance

Racists!

Actually, I think their attack might have worked a bit. Now when I click anything on FR, it takes 30 seconds instead of 20.

[Lees Swrd]

Opps hit the wrong post button lol....

Scott Dunbar One Man Band Singing Tin Foil Hat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MJ7wlPE2E&feature=relmfu

[ßuddaßudd]

► ◄

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I was going to read the article. Then I noticed it was from the NYSlimes.

Heck, that's nothing. I was going to read this article, then I noticed I didn't have any Internet.

[arthurus]

I stop on an interesting title then I see NYT and continue on to the next post.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Heck, that's nothing. I was going to read this article, then I noticed I didn't have any Internet."

I was gonna post a reply to you but I can't login...

(I'll try later when the Internet is working again...)

[BobL]

I wish these guys would take out the GPS system instead. We have a bunch of ZOMBIES driving around now that don’t even know what part of the state they’re in, much less what highway they’re on - once that little screen goes dead.

[who knows what evil?]

Amen. Many FedEx drivers still carry a hard copy atlas; since GPS is so unreliable.

[proxy_user]

This could be easily circumvented by running your own caching DNS server, or putting the IPs of the sites you use in your /etc/hosts file.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I looked up the numerical IP addresses for a couple sites I use all the time, just in case.

I know what I came up with for an IP for FR, but I’m new at the process, and I got back the text “Non-authoritative answer” along with the IP when I looked so I’m leery of posting any potentially incorrect address for others.

If someone confidently knows the FR “Latest Articles” url as an IP address perhaps it could be posted here?

Just in case...

[Mad Dawgg]

"Amen. Many FedEx drivers still carry a hard copy atlas; since GPS is so unreliable."

My wife after she got her new job about 5 years back ran out and bought a 300 Garman unit (About the size of a loaf of bread) and kept telling me how good it was. So about a month later her workplace was shutdown for a long weekend and we went for a trip to Cleveland. She wanted to show me how well the Garmin worked so she entered the Address of our Hotel and off we went.

The Garmin unit performed well for awhile until we hit a detour and then it started saying "recalculating" over and over. (She had no idea how to adjust the unit for a detour AND she left the instruction book at home...) I kept a running commentary on how nice it was to hear "Recalculating" over and over for 15 minutes straight.

Finally we get near the hotel (according to the Garmin) after it had adjusted to the new route it led us to a dead end road under an overpass on the highway and declared we had arrived at our destination. The only thing near is for a mile in any direction was an abandoned factory. She reached over and quietly turned off the unit and called the Hotel for directions... I laughed all the way to the hotel...

[who knows what evil?]

LOL...I still consult a map when traveling somewhere.

[Future Snake Eater]

There’s nothing wrong with using GPS—it’s incredibly handy, especially when you’re in an unfamiliar town.

However, it should be part of a navigational PACE plan. When my family travels it always goes:

Primary: GPS
Alternate: Printed-out Google Maps directions
Contingency: Atlas
Emergency: Cell phone call to a family member with access to the internet!

With the advent of smartphones, we can now use Google Maps on our phones as a new Alternate step.

[Mycroft Holmes]

freerepublic.com 209.157.64.200

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Thanks.

So here’s a url for the latest articles tab, in case the DNS server isn’t available:

http://209.157.64.200/tag/*/index?tab=articles

[JimRed]

Should I wrap my router in tinfoil?

If you do, please let me know where you bought it. All I can find is that aluminum stuff!

[Bassfire]

my bad, I know it’s “loser”, that’s what I get for TBC, typing before coffee:)

[Carriage Hill]

Found some copper foil, 0.001” thick, 6” x 6”, 10-pak, $34.99

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-10521483515574_2203_12799889

Tin foil just ain’t available.

[zeugma]

these people obviously are unaware of the way that DNS works. There is a lot of caching that goes on behind the scenes. Your browser caches data, your ISP caches data, if there is another provider upstream from them, it may well have DNS entries cached as well. If you timeout whilst querying for a given domain the last known good data will be used. Additionally, the root servers (which is what they are targeting here), don’t have DNS information for “www.google.com”. Instead, it has information that tells folks where to look for google.com. Google itself provides the IP address(es) for the “WWW” subdomain.

[BobL]

“Alternate: Printed-out Google Maps directions
Contingency: Atlas”

HELLO!! 2012, dingbat.

Puuuuhleease, don’t EVER doubt today’s ‘techonology’ or you might be labeled as an EXTREMIST.