Owned in 4 mintues

[fyrewall]

And you thought 20 minutes for an unpatched machine connected to the net to get owned was quick. It is now 4 minutes

http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/54201306

(I don't know if this has been posted yet)

Some people amaze me. What benefit would someone get from attacking an unpatched average machine with no significance about it at all?? It is not to test their knowledge or to gain any (Any legit testing/study can be done in a lab/controlled environment - instead of releasing **** apon random people)!!??!!?

[MrLinus]

What benefit would someone get from attacking an unpatched average machine with no significance about it at all?? It is not to test their knowledge or to gain any!!??!!?

To use that machine for other attacks (launch points). The reality is that there are lots of machines that are put on the internet without any security and are used as starting points to do larger attacks against others. This specific example from the story identifies the use of botnets, which would probably match up with the "launch point".

Remember there are numerous reasons as to why some compromise boxes:

• money
  fame
  just because (Mount Everest reason)
  knowledge
  "hacktivism"
  prove something
  revenge
  espionage
  etc.

[chsh]

It adds a fileserver/DDoS Zombie/Proxy/Whatever to your list of 'owned' hosts.

[fyrewall]

Yeh i know they can be taken over to use as zombies etc. But nevertheless why would anyone do that heh, it's just stupid selfishness

[;TT]

Shits and giggles? Mostly of them are worms and virii crawling the net looking for **** like this... but I really don't know the perk of a freshly installed system being pwn3d other than as a proxy for other attacks maybe?

[fyrewall]

I guess I am really just getting into the ethics side of things now which has been discussed for years

[MrLinus]

I guess I am really just getting into the ethics side of things now which has been discussed for years

Ethics how? Technically -- under various laws (depending on nation) -- it's illegal to break into a machine you do not have permission to. (sorta like speeding.. aint supposed to do it but it's "not illegal" until the police catch you).

[fyrewall]

Exactly, which makes it wrong/illegal/unethical to break into those machines and here I am asking why would they do it. Which stems down to them being unethical etc etc. Especially automated attacks that attack all vulnerable machines in a ip range.

[MrLinus]

There is a difference between unethical and illegal. Not all nations view computer violations as a crime. That said, the list I provided above shows any number of reasons as to why.

When you think about it why does anyone do what they do? Ask yourself why you are "ethical" and not "unethical" as you define it?

[fyrewall]

MsMittens are you saying that it is fine/right/ok for people to compromise insecure boxes on the net?