Saturday, February 4, 2012

Clicking Links Can Auto-Opt You in to Anonymous’s DDoS Attacks


In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a program called LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic. This time, things are slightly different: you only have to click on a web link to launch a DDoS attack.




We’ve seen many links posted on Twitter, and no doubt elsewhere on the internet, pointing to a page on the pastehtml.com website. If you visit the webpage, and do not have JavaScript disabled, you will instantly, without user interaction, begin to flood a website of Anonymous’s choice with unwanted traffic, helping to perpetuate a DDoS attack.


Don’t forget, denial-of-service attacks are illegal. If you participate in such an attack you could find yourself receiving a lengthy jail sentences.
With this method, however, Anonymous might be hoping that participants could argue that they did not knowingly assist in the DDoS attack, and clicked on the link in innocence without realising what it would do.
I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t tell you if that’s going to be an adequate defense or not if you end up in court.


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