Rogue Servers, Who's Job is it Really? China's Loaded With Them.

Yes, China's loaded with them...

So is every other country on the planet, and the number of headlines containing the word "Hacked" seems to increase by the day.

Hands off our Internet, right? That's what I say too.

As bad as it gets, I can't see myself begging for more regulation, because it doesn't belong to lawmakers, it belongs to us. Give any power hungry group a foot in the door, and you might as well start asking permission to log onto your own computer, because that's where it will end up.

Are we, as citizens, supposed to play the white hat, or do we just sit here while laws are created to squeeze us into a smaller corner, while servers like the one in the video, below, stay up for months? Obviously, I'd never encourage people to engage in equivalent of IRC wars 2.0, but the discussion will eventually need to be had.

Report it to the authorities you say? Trust me, they already know, you won't be telling them anything new.

Here's one example of a quick port scan. Just one of them persistent buggers I pulled off a router log.
I cropped the I.P. out for obvious reasons, but take a look at all the open ports. It wouldn't be much of a stretch, from here, to just wipe the thing out, but legally and ethically what are our choices?

(under 2 minutes, *dialup users can pause/load*)


Remember, this one's nothing special, nor is it a one time thing. It's just an average day with idiots trying to get into your computer. Not everybody's a geek though, and most people don't pay any attention to their own side of the firewall, let alone the other.

Are they left up on purpose hoping we beg for protection? I mean, that's the conspiracy angle if you want one.

I'd love to hear what others think about where this is leading, what we might be able to do about it.

This may very well be me in the future.

reply to post by lernmore

We'll grow up eventually, and realise that enlightened anarchy is a contradiction in terms, on the internet just as it is in real life. There are simply too many stupid and ill-intentioned people in the world for it to be otherwise. Regulation by constituted authorities has always existed on the internet, and it will increase. And this is a good thing, for regulation is necessary to protect all internet users.

Instead of inveighing against regulation in principle, start working now to ensure that the constituted authorities are constituted right, with the appropriate checks and balances in place to keep them from running out of control.

edit on 30/9/12 by Astyanax because: of a personal pronoun.

I wasn't suggesting....

What will the world look like, though, in a few years. Every man for himself?

It just seems funny to me, that if the average Joe could waste the darn thing in no time flat, why do these so called higher powers leave them alone when they could just handle it. It's not like they don't know now.

Eventually, there will have to be some mechanism, whether it's a better built defense or something fair that doesn't restrict us beyond the sites they only allow us to visit.

Regulations have drawbacks, because they're in the hands of men.

ETA: Remember, these are servers that are currently reaching out, and actively trying to look for open ports. The one in the video was one that was scanning mine... from China.

I'd hate for them to use that as an excuse to restrict what I do.

One way might be to just block it from the net, once it's found out, without ever even touching the server itself. That seems like something they could do now with little effort, or stop it at the border so to speak.

Again, not necessarily countering the regulation argument entirely, but are there others we can add to the list without the risk that comes with that kind of sacrifice.

reply to post by lernmore

Aren't there a limited number of ISPs?

And can't the offending sources be reported to the ISPs? (I know they can because I've reported problem sources to their ISPs before). I'm sure the ISPs vary in responsiveness, but if there's any regulation, perhaps what should be regulated is the amount of time the ISPs have to evaluate and respond to such complaints, so problem sites don't linger for months and months. I've sent copies of the complaints to their ISP to the offending source and sometimes that puts enough fear in them of getting cut off by the ISP, that they take action themselves quickly before the ISP even intervenes.

I don't see this problem as any excuse to implement large scale internet regulation.

reply to post by lernmore


I got nowhere with acid ads on my free page.
The ads rotate and the Trojan that send you to a virus malware page can't be stopped.
So I say the page is loaded with Trojans.
And they say no its not.

Planet of the web hosts.
Those Darn Dirty Web Hosts.

Maybe any solution goes far beyond a simple discussion, requires an intimate knowledge of the technology and code, and the choices really are that few.

I just find it hard to believe that ISP's aren't already fully aware of every packet they deliver.

All one has to do is look at their logs to realize it goes on all day, every day, then everyone acts so surprised when we get headlines like we had this week, and nobody can log into their bank accounts.

A person, with good intentions, acts on their own, though, and now they're the bad guy for being a hacker.

In the past, I've been completely blown away by the some of creative thinking ATS members have come up with, was just tossing it out there for the input.

ETA: I haven't ruled out the possibility that I have no idea what I'm talking about and am overlooking something obvious. That happens a lot too.