Operation Shock and Awe - DDoS operation set up for major bitcoin sites

http://pastebin.com/QAPxhEbP

by Jach • 13 years ago

114 45 13 years ago

pastebin.com

Jach• 13 years ago

As seen on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1cu4ck/ridiculous_d...

JonnieCache• 13 years ago

Obvious double(?) bluff: the kind of people who really do this stuff would have access to better ascii art.

ozh• 13 years ago

I kinda like the ascii, reminds of 9 pin dot matrix printers :)

raverbashing• 13 years ago

Well, this is actually a little better, with 'font dithering'

prg318• 13 years ago

The art is mangled by pastebin; the raw version looks somewhat more legit: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=QAPxhEbP

sturmeh3• 13 years ago

Well now I'm scared! :P

wuest• 13 years ago

Saw this posted by Mikko earlier. It's an interesting ploy, and I'm interested to see what comes of it. Specifically, I want to know whether the media, as it were, is going to be willing to propagate this sort of story, even with the plan being relatively well-known at this point.

Of course, this could be a long play. "Leak" this plan, build confidence that the media isn't going to propagate false stories, and then when a similar plan is effected, people are potentially more likely to take this manner of news seriously.

loceng• 13 years ago

This could be possible though, no?

ChrisNorstrom• 13 years ago

Hold Up.... Quick question. How is the price of bitcoin suppose to fall to 1BC = $30 when they're going to DDOS all the exchanges except for BitStamp?! People can't sell their bitcoins and cause a devaluation if they aren't able to login. A tiny percentage of bitcoiners actually have auto-bidding set up, and if BitStamp is the only one up, won't it get flooded with traffic and possibly go down too?

Anyway, assuming this is true....

I guess this will finally show how self regulation doesn't work when profit is the motive. Then again, this leaking is proof that at least one individual is attempting to self regulate.

This is the very thing that will scare people further away from Bitcoin. Knowing it's this easily manipulatable. Knowing Reddit I'm pretty sure they'll try to spread the news of this as far as the internet reaches. However most bitcoin owners will never find out.

I guess in 24 hours we'll see if it works or not.

pyalot2• 13 years ago

If you're holding bitcoins, reading r/bitcoin is pretty much mandatory.

dfc• 13 years ago

[X] Vehemently disagree.

fc2• 13 years ago

This is just some random Bitcoin hater trying to spread FUD. There's no coordinated operation and there's most certainly no group of people willing to dump 250k BTC at once.

spupy• 13 years ago

That's exactly what a member of that group would say!

runarb• 13 years ago

https://www.bitstamp.net/ is down ( just getting a CloudFlare error ), so looks like they can't rely on BitStamp for this operation at list.

codeulike4• 13 years ago

Bitstamp: "We are under attack. Will be back as soon as possible." 12:25 UTC https://twitter.com/Bitstamp/status/326295596963090432

sageikosa• 13 years ago

> I guess this will finally show how self regulation doesn't work when profit is the motive.

No, it exposes risks, which can be a market differentiator for exchanges that examine and provide plans to mitigate the risks (and sell services on those points).

guruz• 13 years ago

> People can't sell their bitcoins and cause a devaluation if they aren't able to login

If I have my bitcoins in my own wallet (not in the one at the exchange which might be down) then I could sell them at any exchange which is not down.

tlrobinson• 13 years ago

Not to mention the absurdity of "spreading bogus AP press releases"

DanBC• 13 years ago

Yes.

While (British) newspapers are happy to print any old nonsense so long as they can source it to "somebody said", bogus AP press releases is just daft.

I enjoy shenanigans and trolling, but it has to be done better than this for it to be any fun.

nwzpaperman• 13 years ago

So all we need is regulation against DDoS and concentrated sale orders and we are all warm fuzzier again? Great! Who wants to lead the SRO?

Or does more regulation do anything?

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or 18 U.S.C. §1030

As far as the large sell order/volume strategy is concerned, that's just a market and the sellers would be taking a market risk with this behavior. It's not naked shorting.

Dumping shares into a thin market is a standard practice in every single regulated market around the world. LBO/Hedge Funds firms frequently engage in this practice to undermine confidence in a company with lots of debt and thin margins to scoop up the secured debt/preferred equity at a corresponding discount a gain control of the company.

Mahn2• 13 years ago

Wishful thinking, there's no way the price goes back to $30 at the moment. Not a chance. Maybe in the future, but not right now.

codeulike4• 13 years ago

It got down to about $50 last week (16/Apr, MtGox)

Mahn2• 13 years ago

Yeah, but that seems to be the maximum bottom of the pit at the moment.

RustyRussell• 13 years ago

If you had 250,000 BTC to sell, you'd buy some better artwork.

vbo• 13 years ago

The authors could also be hoping the "leak" itself, without actually executing the plan, causes panic sells by becoming a sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

Also, it seems last night's ddos on mtgox didn't impact the price that much, at least not as much as previous attacks have, so I'm hoping the reduced effectiveness of such actions combined with the market clueing up to the ruse will help stabilise the bitcoin.

jbr1ght• 13 years ago

Looks to me like someone is trying to make this look like a legit secret bulletin to a hacker group, when actually it's an attempt to provide proof of the bitcoin flaws.

codeulike4• 13 years ago

This reads more like a thought experiment - to demonstrate what could be possible - than a real thing or even a hoax. For example it mentions the potential profit. I'd be more convinced if it were in 1337speak - the punctuation is far too tidy.

codeulike4• 13 years ago

Wait, "Distributed F5"??

Nursie• 13 years ago

Does this not just play into the conspiracy theories of the (already conspiracy theory and delusions of grandeur prone) bitcoin community?

InclinedPlane• 13 years ago

Sort of a side note: does anyone have any insight into law enforcement activities related to DDoS / zombie networks? It seems like this problem has been growing out of control and nobody in government cares even the slightest bit about it. Yet if you download academic articles that are already ostensibly in the public domain then you can easily raise the ire of the criminal justice system at the federal level.

foob• 13 years ago

It seems like this problem has been growing out of control and nobody in government cares even the slightest bit about it.

What are you basing this on? Take a look at this: http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-internat...

I believe that the Microsoft DCU has also worked with the government on a number of botnet investigations and takedowns. Rustock and Bamital come to mind without googling it but I think there are more than several additional ones.

trotsky• 13 years ago

Based on there being no charges filed in the US related to Operation Payback even though the FBI served 50+ search warrants I think the DOJ's opinion is that it's not illegal.

sailfast• 13 years ago

Normally if someone has 250,000 of anything it would not be to their advantage to crash the market before a sell-off. If anything they should prop-up the currency value with fake press releases as they sell in order to cash out high and buy back in as low as possible, then write a story about the sell-off to cause a panic.

That said, I suppose it's also possible that a group would want to destroy the currency in its current form too, for giggles?

niggler• 13 years ago

It's also possible they have such a low cost basis (remember that it wasn't that long ago when BTC was less than 1 USD) that 30 represents s massive profit

Prefinem• 13 years ago

Seeing as he claims "1,000,000+ compromised machines", my guess is this is just a spoof.

Cthulhu_• 13 years ago

I don't actually think that's difficult, there's 'commercial' botnets for hire for an X amount of time for this kind of coordinate attack.

_jmar777• 13 years ago

Sounds like someone really wants us to all sign up for BitStamp.

Completely unsubstantiated theory: someone figured out how to compromise BitStamp user accounts, but not enough users yet...

sturmeh3• 13 years ago

More like they want you to sell your coins on Bitstamp. (You'll be prepared for quick pickings! :P)

Tichy• 13 years ago

How would they buy on MtGox anonymously?

wmf• 13 years ago

They wouldn't, but that's not a necessary part of the plan.

macspoofing• 13 years ago

So is this a North Korean-style of preemptive attack, tell everyone when you're going to attack and what you're going to do?

sturmeh3• 13 years ago

Just so people know, there's no correlation between these documents being drafted up and the aforementioned operations actually taking place.

It takes a coordinated effort and a mass of resources in order to successfully pull this off (ignoring the fact that they leaked the document anyway).

It only takes 1 person with a creative mind and a bit of spare time to write the document up and 'spread' it around, which in itself will cause some panic.

9mit3t2m9h9a• 13 years ago

For the context:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/hackers-compromise-ap-twitter...

Fake announcement from AP was pulled off only on Twitter (about explosions in White House), short-term drop in stocks.

Operation Shock and Awe - DDoS operation set up for major bitcoin sites

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