Security Protection That Fights Back
from the and-this-is-how-the-computers-take-over... dept
While there's been plenty of talk about setting up security technology that would "fight back" when computers are attacked, most have stayed away from the idea, admitting that it could cause a lot more damage than it prevents. However, one company is now promoting that very idea and using a bunch of war metaphors to support their position on "information warfare." The idea is that they have a standard network security product, but if things get bad enough, it will somehow go on the offensive against the source of the problem. That "somehow" is a big question mark however. The company won't describe (at all) how they fight back, so there's no way to know what they're really doing. This could be a big problem - especially now that many attacks seem to come from compromised computers. What happens when these sorts of offensive systems then start attacking each other?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Styles of Fighting Back
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
However, installing software that automatically retaliates against threats is problematic because even moderately skilled idiots out there can and DO cover their trail, which would lead to a whole new industry of DDOS tools which would require no zombies at all (machines previously infected with a trojan a script kiddie could manipulate for a DOS attack)...instead machines with this kind of software installed would be pre-installed zombies who could be spoofed to respond from an "attack" by any number of targets.
Want to bring down Yahoo again? Spoof a few of these machines into thinking yahoo.com is hacking them...I'm sure its easily done.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
Let the war begin !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]