Well, my company anyway (not a good day in our company).
And it wasn't the computers. It was our phone system.
Somebody called in and hacked into our phone system, stealling a couple undefined mailboxed. they then set up those mailboxes to have our system call internationally.
It seems this has been only going on since 10/1, but that is not definate yet.
We have no idea how big our phone bill will be, or how many calls they were able to make.
We are not a big company (www.adventurefun.com), and this can seriously hurt us in an off year.
I know this was mentioned on the Bad Day Gamer thread, but Hackers suck.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Can you work with your phone service provider to somehow get out of the exorbant bill?
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
I'd lend you my stick, but apparently it's virus protection program is corrupted.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
We will, but that's for the managers to deal with.
Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
Hackers are horrible! They are serious criminals, not pranksters. And they are nasty human beings as well, in my experience. I hope they catch the one who did that to your company. And prosecute and jail them.
Posted by poly_biosis (Member # 5773) on :
There are two kinds of of ways to refer to a Hacker. The so-called black-hats and the white-hats. Of course you will be able to differ them by the colors. The black-hats do that kind of stuff, trash systems, steal, break systems, etc.
The white-hats do the opposite, though they have almost the same skill, they use it differently, they help companies, banks, government, etc. by telling them their vulnerabilities, or holes.
What I am trying to explain is that not all the Hackers are bad people, of course they have unusual skills with computers that scare the rest. But we must be able to learn to differ black-hats and white-hats.
It would not be right to judge those Hackers that use their skills to help instead of destroying. So it really would be wise to refer the bad ones as Black-hats.
As for what happened, I am really sorry that your company has experienced a "black-hat Hacker" attack.
Posted by Nick (Member # 4311) on :
Oh man, I'm sorry Dan. That's horrible. Especially when it's your job that's at stake. I hate it when hackers do this. You should be able to get out if it, but if your phone companies are money hungry jerks, then maybe not. I wish you the best of luck Dan.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Good point, poly_biosis, and welcome. I would guess programmers or hackers with the ability to write effective virii and other malware out-number the ones who actually do (and release them into the 'wild') by a factor of 10 to 20. Not counting corporate hackers who churn out spyware, adware and other crap. May they all get digital rot!
My brother, a published computer scientist who has lost count of the # of programing languages he can use, 50+ languages and protocols I believe he told me years ago, could I'm sure write a hella virus if he wanted to and put his mind to it. But he won't because it's wrong.
Hackers have acquired a negative reputation that is only partially deserved.
Of course, many people use the term hackers to exclusively mean the ethically challenged programmers, which can be confusing.
[ October 05, 2003, 07:39 AM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
Hi, polyb! I was going to call you poly but that sounds like a girl. Welcome to the board!
Yes, white hat hackers are good guys, but they are unfortunately always dogged by the suspicion that often follows double agents. i.e. Where do their true loyalties lie?
Because of a hacker attack that violated me badly a good many years ago, I came to loathe hackers to the point that I started looking into their sites to learn more about how to counter them. The atmosphere of gleeful malice and juvenile oneupmanship that prevailed in such places combined with the total obliviousness to the very real damage they caused, was so sickening and soul killing to me that I soon abandoned that approach entirely. I respect anyone who can stomach such communities long enough to find out what they do and how to fight them.
Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
Well, I'm grateful for one group of hackers that were responsible for causing the cancellation of a public suicide - for a week, anyway.
quote:TAMPA, Florida (Oct. 4) - A concert that was to feature an on-stage suicide of a terminally ill person was postponed Saturday because the Web site that was to broadcast the event was attacked, the operator of the site said.
The Web site for the band Hell on Earth was attacked Saturday evening by a flood of data from computers somewhere in Hong Kong, said Jason Trindade, the operator of a San Diego-based technology company that hosts the site.
"There's been a huge amount of traffic which causes the server to lock up," Trindade said.
Trindade said he was told by Hell on Earth leader Billy Tourtelot that the performance would be postponed, possibly until next weekend.
Guess the group had to make do with their older stunts - putting rats in a blender and other stuff to gross to put on this forum.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Hmmm, a hacker attack for a subjectively defined good reason? I have mixed feelings about that. Sometimes the ends justify the means, sometimes not. I predict that such "white hat" attcks will be become more common in the future.
Posted by Ryan Hart (Member # 5513) on :
What about red hats?
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I know there are white hatted hackers. These guys who attacked our phone system at work wer Hacker Wannabe's.
They wanted some cheap long distance, and were so sloppy we caught them at it in 3 days, without a dedicated IT person on staff.
The phone lines were for out of the country. I wondering to which foriegn country they were going to? Who knows, maybe we are interupting an AlQueda plot by cutting off their hacked phone lines.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Welcome to the board!