Pierluigi Paganini
March 30, 2012
Hi all, I write a few hours before the fateful D-Day, March 31th … What happens tomorrow when I wake up? For sure I will breakfast, tomorrow I’ll not work so after breakfast turning on my PC will I be able to navigate on internet? What was the outcome of the Operation Blackout?
I am the author of one of the most read article on internet about the attack technique usable by the Anonymous group in the BlackOut Operation … with surprise I discovered just yesterday my article was linked by a caption on a video related to Anonymous posted on You Tube. I thought a lot about the subject and about the events that have seen protagonist the famous group of hacktivist. Try to imagine what could happen tomorrow …
What will be the result of the Operation Blackout?
Still half asleep I turn on my laptop and … internet is not accessible, it’s impossible to access to any web site. It’s caos, we will face with the scenario defined “Cascading failure in computer networks”, the DNS resolution fails and what would normally cause systems to be interconnected, might break connections that are not even directly involved in the actual systems that went down. This, in turn, may cause seemingly unrelated nodes to develop problems, that can cause another cascade failure all on its own.
Immediately managers of DNS initiate recovery procedures, but each passing instantaneous causes untold damage. Suddenly the silence, a blast from the past. The media bounce the firm and consecrate the group as a new force political / social world stage. Law enforcement officers and agencies across the world are groping in the dark and the media spread news of excellent arrests, the group is under attack, he managed to silence the corrupt world that from now on will have to deal with Anonymous. It’s the first time that a spontaneous movement can change the course of events, to impose the people’s voice in the decisions to date exclusive prerogative of governments accused of being corrupt.
Change is epic, is the technology 11/9 from a media perspective … The world will never be the same, the cyberspace will be completely revolutionized, the intent is announced by experts from around the world.
Still half asleep I turn on my laptop and … As always I access to the sites of my favorite online newspapers, I read the main news by choosing the next article for my blog. But what became of Anonymous and Operation Black Out? Certainly we have faced yet another media success of the group that has scared the computer world. We are extremely vulnerable, we are aware of Anonymous threat and scared for his entourage and the difficulty to limit it.
The group has failed or has never really had the intention to put the deal announced, and in the latter case, what truth lies behind the events? The most plausible hypothesis are the following:
The group has never been willing to attack Internet, would not have any reason, given that network is vital to its operations of propaganda, recruitment and information gathering.
Other scenario is that someone has led a campaign of disinformation to try to tease the group, forcing the error. Anonymous realizing the trap has gone along with the game, using the operation to talk about it’s ideology and gain increased visibility.
Another option is the inability of the group to complete the operation, the machine’s safety is stronger and has limited the threat. Business operators have to be able to thwart attacks … but we are aware that the threat to strike back. The failure is mainly due to technological difficulties related to the impossibility of hitting 13 DNS server at the same time. For further info I suggest to read the article published on the Hacker News portal on the topic.
Anonymous Hackers were not able to bombard Those 13 servers with traffic using a distributed denial of service attacks.
All the assumptions made have a common denominator, the strength of the group that any independently from the technical outcomes of the operation has monopolized media box …. is the concept of technological democracy to win, people choose to read what they desire, they speak of what they want to discuss, whatever happens we are still free … or maybe not.
I leave you … it’s bed time …
Pierluigi Paganini
