Anonymous Running Attacks on Anti-Wikileaks Sites with Low Orbit Ion Cannon

December 9th, 2010

LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon):

LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) is a network stress testing application, written in C# and developed by “praetox”. It attempts a denial-of-service attack on the target site by flooding the server with TCP packets, UDP packets, or HTTP requests with the intention of disrupting the service of a particular host. The program was exploited during Project Chanology to attack Scientology websites, and is currently being used by Operation Avenge Assange (Organized by Operation Payback) to attack the websites of companies and organizations that have opposed WikiLeaks.

“NewEraCracker” updated LOIC for the Operation Payback protests to fix a few bugs and added new features.

As of Version 1.1.1.3, LOIC has incorporated a new “Hive Mind” feature which allows the user to relinquish control of the LOIC application to the operator of an IRC channel. This has been likened to a “voluntary botnet”.

This updated version works on Windows XP or later, and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. It also works on Linux with Mono or Wine with .NET Framework 2.0.

An option to start the program hidden as a background service is also available in these later versions.

I don’t know if these attacks are part of some kind of PSYOP, but they certainly play into the pre-existing script for curtailing freedom on the Internet. Mike McConnell, former NSA Director, former Director of National Intelligence and now, Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Vice President, has said that we need to re-engineer the Internet:

We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military and legal options — and we must be able to do this in milliseconds. More specifically, we need to re-engineer the Internet to make attribution, geo-location, intelligence analysis and impact assessment — who did it, from where, why and what was the result — more manageable. The technologies are already available from public and private sources and can be further developed if we have the will to build them into our systems and to work with our allies and trading partners so they will do the same.

He’s talking about changing the internet to make everything anyone does on the net traceable and geo-located so the National Security Agency can pinpoint users and their computers for retaliation if the U.S. government doesn’t like what’s written in an e-mail, what search terms were used, what movies were downloaded. Or the tech could be useful if a computer got hijacked without your knowledge and used as part of a botnet.

And now…

Via: BBC:

The data war between companies that have refused to do business with Wikileaks and the online activists keen to defend it is getting more intense.

The tool through which attacks are carried out against websites perceived to be anti-Wikileaks has now been downloaded more than 31,000 times.

Security experts warned people to avoid joining the voluntary botnet.

Targets of the loose-knit group Anonymous have so far included Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.

Amazon is expected to be among firms targeted next using the Anonymous attack tool known as LOIC. When a person installs the tool on their PC it enrols the machine into a voluntary botnet which then bombards target sites with data.

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are illegal in many countries, including the UK.

Social network Facebook confirmed that it had removed Operation Payback – as the campaign is known – from the site because it was promoting its attack tool.

6 Responses to “Anonymous Running Attacks on Anti-Wikileaks Sites with Low Orbit Ion Cannon”

  1. shoe2one says:

    It’s all a ploy to get people to say “YES, the internet is out of control, we need to regulate the internet blah blah blah…”

    Assange is part of a hacker milieu that includes one Peiter Zatko, aka “Mudge”, a hacker cur­rently employed by DARPA to strengthen cyber­se­cu­rity. This is a con­nec­tion that raises more ques­tions than it answers.

    You should read this: Julian Connected to DARPA Hacker
    http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30430

    An Interview With WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
    FORBES – Nov. 29 2010 – 5:02 pm

    FORBES: I wanted to ask you about [Peiter Zatko, a legendary hacker and security researcher who also goes by] “Mudge.”

    Assange: Yeah, I know Mudge. He’s a very sharp guy.

    FORBES: Mudge is now leading a project at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to find a technology that can stop leaks, which seems pretty relative to your organization. Can you tell me about your past relationship with Mudge?

    Assange: Well, I…no comment.

    Peiter Zatko Program Manager Strategic Technology Office (STO)
    http://dtsn.darpa.mil/pmdb/search.aspx?page=2&mode=office&q=STO
    http://www.darpa.mil/sto/

    Anonymouse, Assange, and “Mudge” definitely know one another.

    Just wait, they’ll let you know that you now have to pay for a retinal scanner or fingerprint scanner before you can F***ing logon to to the “Internet”.

    The anonymouse clowns don’t even have a clue, they actually think they are helping the situation.

    Scientology is a rallying point to induct the dim-witted into the hyper-mind-controlled cult.

  2. ltcolonelnemo says:

    @shoe2one

    Excellent find on the Zatko connection. I suspected a possible motive for Wikileaks would as a beta-test opponent for U.S. cybersecurity. This whole thing could be a type of war-game. But of course one motive is merely a thread in a rope of motives entwined together.

    Wikileaks doesn’t have to be a knowing participant for it to be a wargame. The soldiers and cybersoldiers like to have Injuns to play with when they play Cowboys; it’s their raison d’etre.

    Assange may know Mudge, but that could be because it’s a small world after all. I doubt Assange’s image would have been helped by an exegesis of his relationship with Mudge; when in doubt, it’s often better to say nothing at all. Even if it were just innocuous information sharing, it could easily get twisted. For all we know, Mudge and other allegedly pro-government hackers may be sympathetic to Wikileaks and may act as guardian angels for some of their activities. Maybe Assange was covering for Mudge; maybe he heared Mudge wouldn’t be his friend anymore if he bragged about their relationship.

    Who is there to audit the arch-nerds with their Ph.Ds and impenetrable technobabble? Certainly not the thugs and playboys who hold regular government bureaucrat jobs. I have to wonder at the fact that these major corporations’ websites were taken down so easily. Maybe the IT people sat on their hands?

    I see one perp has already been arrested:

    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/wikileaks_anonymous_arrests/

  3. ltcolonelnemo says:

    It looks like anonymous is now changing tactics . . .

    http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/09/anonymous-stops-drop.html

  4. j.biddy says:

    Okay, let’s assume for a second that this theory turns out to be reality, that Assange et al are really double agents working to bring ultimate control over the Internet. Even if this were true, haven’t they sort of let the cat out of the bag with the idea behind WikiLeaks. I mean, the approach has been so air tight that Assange and Manning are so far the only public casualties in the four years since the website was launched, and Manning was only discovered once he incriminated himself via chat with an informant.

    What I’m trying to say is that considering how the government hasn’t actually been able to stop the leaking, and now that there is a group wanting to set up a WikiLeaks clone/rival (presumably without the Ego-Figurehead), isn’t it safe to assume MISO/PSY-OP or not that all of this isn’t going away? Pandora’s Box is open and I’m not so sure even biometrics and RFIDs can close it. As with all things electronic, exploits are easy to come by.

  5. Shikar says:

    I’m still of the mind Wikileaks is certainly duped and being used to fufil several objectives but I am hoping against hope that all this will become out of control and impossible to mangage. Pandora’s box indeed. We’ll see.

  6. neural overload says:

    i see wikileaks as being something of a chinese fire drill of the intelligence community.

    something not overly serious to them, their credibility, or their actions, while providing a great deal of information on interested parties. let’s be honest a moment, nothing that has been released in its’ wikiness has been damaging to any party or interest, in any way.

    plame was a bigger deal than this, iraq wmd’s or lack thereof was a bigger deal, trillions of dollars into the middle east is a bigger deal.

    yet, assange gets the press, and smiles in jail.

    a cheshire cat leashed to the red queen?

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.