clydeiii/cybersecurity · Datasets at Hugging Face

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cyber attacks could be used by a third party state, or organization, to create conflict between
external states to further some masked goal. For example, Iran could benefit by creating
tension between the US and China through an attack prior to a US proposed UN resolution, in
which China has veto power (Onley and Wait 2006; Delio 2001).
In 2004, the Myfip worm probably originated from IP addresses in the Chinese municipality
of Tianjin (Brenner 2005). This worm stole pdf files, with later variants targeting Microsoft
Word documents, schematics, and circuit board layouts. Among the victims were Bank of
America, BJ
s Wholesale Club, and Lexis-Nexis. The worm not only stole intellectual
property, such as product designs, but also took customer lists and databases. Identifying the
number of companies affected poses difficulties as they do not wish to further damage their
business by coming forward. To do so can damage consumer confidence and require the
Culture Mandala, Vol. 8, No. 1, October 2008, pp.28-80
Copyright
2008 Jason Fritz
implementation of costly security measures. Businesses may also be oblivious to the number
of previous infections and potential data loss as they simply update their patches and move on
(Brenner 2005).
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is an attempt
to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. This is accomplished by
flooding the target with data requests, so that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or so that
it responds so slowly that it is rendered useless. DDoS attacks may be conducted by a
collective of individuals, often co-ordinating their efforts, or by a network of computers
under the control of a single attacker. Such networks are called botnets, with each computer
in the botnet being known as a bot, or a zombie. These computers have been taken control of
by malicious users without the knowledge of the owner, usually through a rootkit, Trojan, or
virus. Sobig and Mydoom are examples of worms which created zombies. A botnet's
originator, known as a bot herder, can control the group remotely, usually through a means
such as IRC, and usually for nefarious purposes. Infected zombie computers are used to send
email spam, to host contraband data such as child pornography, or to engage in distributed
denial-of-service attacks as a form of extortion. The services of a bot herder can be rented on
the black market. One estimate suggested that Chinese hackers have 750,000 zombie
computers in the US alone (Waterman 2007). A similar, but non-malicious, phenomenon
involving the banding together of excess computer power can be seen in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI@home), or Stanford University
s protein folding simulations
(Folding@home).
DoS and DDoS attacks can prevent an internet site or service from functioning temporarily or
indefinitely. DOS attacks can also lead to problems in the network branches around the
actual computer being attacked. For example, the bandwidth of a router between the internet
and a local area network may be consumed by an attack, compromising not only the intended
computer, but also the entire network. If the attack is conducted on a sufficiently large scale,
entire geographical regions of internet connectivity can be compromised without the
attacker's knowledge or intent by incorrectly configured or flimsy network infrastructure
equipment. Scripts can be set up to automate the process, and subtle variations of these
attacks, such as smurf attacks, fraggle attacks, teardrop attack, ping flood, SYN flood, IRC
floods, banana attack, Fork bomb, pulsing zombie, and nuke exemplify their sophistication.
Various DoS-causing exploits such as buffer overflow can confuse server-running software
and fill the disk space or consume all available memory or CPU time. A permanent denialof-service (PDoS), also known loosely as phlashing, is an attack that damages a system so
badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. Unlike the DDoS, a PDoS
attack exploits security flaws in the remote management interfaces of the victim's hardware,
be it routers, printers, or other networking hardware. These flaws leave the door open for an
attacker to remotely
update
the hardware firmware to a modified, corrupt or defective
firmware image, therefore bricking the device and making it permanently unusable for its
original purpose. The PDoS is a hardware-targeted attack which can be much faster and
requires fewer resources than using a botnet in a DDoS attack.
It is important to note the difference between a DDoS and DoS attack. If an attacker mounts
a smurf attack from a single host it would be classified as a DoS attack. In fact, any attack
directed against computer availability would be classified as a DoS attack. On the other
hand, if an attacker uses a thousand zombie systems to simultaneously launch smurf attacks
against a remote host, this would be classified as a DDoS attack. Several botnets have been
found and removed from the internet. Dutch police located and disbanded a 1.5 million node
Culture Mandala, Vol. 8, No. 1, October 2008, pp.28-80
Copyright
2008 Jason Fritz
botnet, and the Norwegian ISP Telenor disbanded a 10,000 node botnet (Keizer 2005;
Leyden 2004). Large, coordinated international efforts to shut down botnets have also been
initiated, such as Operation Spam Zombies, which included agencies from 25 different states
(Operation Spam Zombies 2005). It has been estimated that up to one quarter of all personal
computers connected to the internet may become part of a botnet. And an estimated 50% of
all pirated Windows programs contain pre-installed Trojans. China is renowned for its use of
pirated Windows programs. This is a cause for concern for China as it bogs down internet
and computer efficiency. It also could make Chinese computers susceptible to international
condemnation, if their computers are used via proxy. Further, it demonstrates to China the
value of developing its own operating systems for domestic and world markets, either to
avoid such problems, or to create them for others (Weber 2007).
There are also hybrids. A worm can install a rootkit, and a rootkit might include copies of one
or more worms, packet sniffers, or port scanners. A rootkit or virus may be used to conduct a
DoS attack, and compromising the system may include some traditional social engineering
(HUMINT). So all of these terms have somewhat overlapping usage and they are often
misused by mainstream media. The depth of security hacking goes far beyond the examples
given here. These examples serve as an introduction to the level of sophistication with which
computers can be compromised, illustrating the difficulty in providing defence. They also
demonstrate the high level of damage that can be caused by a small group of individuals who
work with little funding. This adds to the lack of attribution as it does not require the funding
and support of a military, making state-sponsored hacking easy to deny. In combination with
anonymity tools and the ability to hide intrusions, security hacking provides a high level of
stealth and asymmetry.
Military Applications of Hacking
The USA
s paramount position and its heavy reliance on computers have made it a prime
target. For this reason it has some of the most extensive information on cyber attacks. The
United States has had millions of computers infected at a cost in the billions of dollars.
Hackers may be lone teenagers searching for fun or curiosity or state-sponsored intelligence
gathering and technology transfer, the determination of which is highly problematic.
Frequently hit targets include the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, NASA, Los
Alamos Laboratories, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Harvard
University, California Institute of Technology, and a wide range of think tanks, defence
contractors, military installations, and high profile commercial corporations. The attacks

cyber attacks could be used by a third party state, or organization, to create conflict between

external states to further some masked goal. For example, Iran could benefit by creating

tension between the US and China through an attack prior to a US proposed UN resolution, in

which China has veto power (Onley and Wait 2006; Delio 2001).

In 2004, the Myfip worm probably originated from IP addresses in the Chinese municipality

of Tianjin (Brenner 2005). This worm stole pdf files, with later variants targeting Microsoft

Word documents, schematics, and circuit board layouts. Among the victims were Bank of

America, BJ

s Wholesale Club, and Lexis-Nexis. The worm not only stole intellectual

property, such as product designs, but also took customer lists and databases. Identifying the

number of companies affected poses difficulties as they do not wish to further damage their

business by coming forward. To do so can damage consumer confidence and require the

Culture Mandala, Vol. 8, No. 1, October 2008, pp.28-80

Copyright

2008 Jason Fritz

implementation of costly security measures. Businesses may also be oblivious to the number

of previous infections and potential data loss as they simply update their patches and move on

(Brenner 2005).

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is an attempt

to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. This is accomplished by

flooding the target with data requests, so that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or so that

it responds so slowly that it is rendered useless. DDoS attacks may be conducted by a

collective of individuals, often co-ordinating their efforts, or by a network of computers

under the control of a single attacker. Such networks are called botnets, with each computer

in the botnet being known as a bot, or a zombie. These computers have been taken control of

by malicious users without the knowledge of the owner, usually through a rootkit, Trojan, or

virus. Sobig and Mydoom are examples of worms which created zombies. A botnet's

originator, known as a bot herder, can control the group remotely, usually through a means

such as IRC, and usually for nefarious purposes. Infected zombie computers are used to send

email spam, to host contraband data such as child pornography, or to engage in distributed

denial-of-service attacks as a form of extortion. The services of a bot herder can be rented on

the black market. One estimate suggested that Chinese hackers have 750,000 zombie

computers in the US alone (Waterman 2007). A similar, but non-malicious, phenomenon

involving the banding together of excess computer power can be seen in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI@home), or Stanford University

s protein folding simulations

(Folding@home).

DoS and DDoS attacks can prevent an internet site or service from functioning temporarily or

indefinitely. DOS attacks can also lead to problems in the network branches around the

actual computer being attacked. For example, the bandwidth of a router between the internet

and a local area network may be consumed by an attack, compromising not only the intended

computer, but also the entire network. If the attack is conducted on a sufficiently large scale,

entire geographical regions of internet connectivity can be compromised without the

attacker's knowledge or intent by incorrectly configured or flimsy network infrastructure

equipment. Scripts can be set up to automate the process, and subtle variations of these

attacks, such as smurf attacks, fraggle attacks, teardrop attack, ping flood, SYN flood, IRC

floods, banana attack, Fork bomb, pulsing zombie, and nuke exemplify their sophistication.

Various DoS-causing exploits such as buffer overflow can confuse server-running software

and fill the disk space or consume all available memory or CPU time. A permanent denialof-service (PDoS), also known loosely as phlashing, is an attack that damages a system so

badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. Unlike the DDoS, a PDoS

attack exploits security flaws in the remote management interfaces of the victim's hardware,

be it routers, printers, or other networking hardware. These flaws leave the door open for an

attacker to remotely

update

the hardware firmware to a modified, corrupt or defective

firmware image, therefore bricking the device and making it permanently unusable for its

original purpose. The PDoS is a hardware-targeted attack which can be much faster and

requires fewer resources than using a botnet in a DDoS attack.

It is important to note the difference between a DDoS and DoS attack. If an attacker mounts

a smurf attack from a single host it would be classified as a DoS attack. In fact, any attack

directed against computer availability would be classified as a DoS attack. On the other

hand, if an attacker uses a thousand zombie systems to simultaneously launch smurf attacks

against a remote host, this would be classified as a DDoS attack. Several botnets have been

found and removed from the internet. Dutch police located and disbanded a 1.5 million node

Culture Mandala, Vol. 8, No. 1, October 2008, pp.28-80

Copyright

2008 Jason Fritz

botnet, and the Norwegian ISP Telenor disbanded a 10,000 node botnet (Keizer 2005;

Leyden 2004). Large, coordinated international efforts to shut down botnets have also been

initiated, such as Operation Spam Zombies, which included agencies from 25 different states

(Operation Spam Zombies 2005). It has been estimated that up to one quarter of all personal

computers connected to the internet may become part of a botnet. And an estimated 50% of

all pirated Windows programs contain pre-installed Trojans. China is renowned for its use of

pirated Windows programs. This is a cause for concern for China as it bogs down internet

and computer efficiency. It also could make Chinese computers susceptible to international

condemnation, if their computers are used via proxy. Further, it demonstrates to China the

value of developing its own operating systems for domestic and world markets, either to

avoid such problems, or to create them for others (Weber 2007).

There are also hybrids. A worm can install a rootkit, and a rootkit might include copies of one

or more worms, packet sniffers, or port scanners. A rootkit or virus may be used to conduct a

DoS attack, and compromising the system may include some traditional social engineering

(HUMINT). So all of these terms have somewhat overlapping usage and they are often

misused by mainstream media. The depth of security hacking goes far beyond the examples

given here. These examples serve as an introduction to the level of sophistication with which

computers can be compromised, illustrating the difficulty in providing defence. They also

demonstrate the high level of damage that can be caused by a small group of individuals who

work with little funding. This adds to the lack of attribution as it does not require the funding

and support of a military, making state-sponsored hacking easy to deny. In combination with

anonymity tools and the ability to hide intrusions, security hacking provides a high level of

stealth and asymmetry.

Military Applications of Hacking

The USA

s paramount position and its heavy reliance on computers have made it a prime

target. For this reason it has some of the most extensive information on cyber attacks. The

United States has had millions of computers infected at a cost in the billions of dollars.

Hackers may be lone teenagers searching for fun or curiosity or state-sponsored intelligence

gathering and technology transfer, the determination of which is highly problematic.

Frequently hit targets include the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, NASA, Los

Alamos Laboratories, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Harvard

University, California Institute of Technology, and a wide range of think tanks, defence

contractors, military installations, and high profile commercial corporations. The attacks