"hackers are increasingly giving up hacking, why? because its become boring, there is no glits and glam in ethical or malicious hacking anymore. the reality of being a hacker. years of being on your own infront of the computer screen, developing a nerdy shaped neck with a bend in it and a weak bone structure and most likely a beer belly to go. why? because that is the reality of hacking and the security scene. it sounds sexier reading about it than it is doing it. sure the outcome of a successful hack gives you a buzz, but is that buzz big enough to invest your life on 1 minute of buzz? you could drive a racing car and get that buzz whenever you wanted, so why slave through hours of code and dedicate your life to hacking? sure, before hacking was interesting , sure there was plenty going on, but apart from the usual run-of-the-mill idefense security advisories there is nothing stimulating enough in the security industry anymore, infact so much so, folks are switching off their computers and heading outdoors into the sun and getting fit in the gym, far from the realms of the computer screen and the code that is sitting there wanting to be hacked. in the professional world, in the beginning, folks were interested in the large pay packet of the industry, with many security jobs classed as gold dust and highly skilled I.T security folks are very much a premium, but even these guys are switching off their computers and changing career, for a more interesting and self rewarding job, than boring computer ethical hacking. so where is the threat going to be coming from now that individual users aren't the threat anymore? yep folks, security is notching up a gear into a new and more serious and sophisticated threat coming not from bedroom and office 9 to 5 hackers but from government as a political tool attack vector to get the point across on politcal views and posture. we see a threat that is incoming and its from russia. russia has just fallen out with the united kingdom and has exspelled uk diplomats from its country and is refusing to corporate with the war on terror anymore, america has called on russia to had over the top murder suspect of the former russian spy, killed by radio active material in london last year. russia denies any government involvement in the killing and is saying there will be serious implications after the uk exspelled russian diplomats, so right now its an eye for an eye as far as international relations between uk and ru. there is no indication that the matter is over with and russia "could" be planning cyber attacks against united kingdom interests and the united states, because as we see it all allies of the united kingdom are the same as the united kingdom itself. the threat in security as spoken about briefly is now coming from governments with large fire power against its enemies and can affect not only government computer systems but also civilian infrastructure that we all use, i'm not going to list all the ways our lives could be hacked into accept to say a black out of electrity is the best example but by no means the only or biggest threat example. with russia now an enemy of the state, can we trust them not to get upto anymore dirty tricks? i mean they only entered the uk and poisoned an ex russian spy, so surely ddos'ing won't be out of the question. russia could be experiemnting right now with bot nets and their capabilities to teach the enemy a lession as far as fucking with them is concerned, so the threat today is bigger than ever with governments getting more into hacking and using that not only to obtain classified government documents but to disable the infrastructure of a country as a whole. so while we've switched off our computers and thought the security scene wasn't very interesting anymore and were unsubscribing our minds to more interesting non-computer related activites an enemy has been brewing and the future is surely uncertain, but will there be anyone left to care or have we already left the security scene out of sheer boredom? i'm not the only one whose noticed the extreme boredom which has assended on the security news wires and mailing lists, other folks have too. its not so much new techniques coming along but new threats using conventional techniques. so what is going to happen when the big boy hackers belonging to governments come out to play and attack the west? will we counter attack them electronically and if we fail, will we just send in a real life nuke and wipe out the country involved? should a response to a cyber attack be in a cyber form or should we use real life nukes to respond to a government such as russia cyber attacking western interests? russia isn't only against the uk over the killing of the ex spy, but russia is ramping up its anti-west status with refusing to accept that a u.s anti missle defense system is not there to attack russia. where in my view is the main governmental cyber security threat coming from today? russia. we think russia is the most likely, most capable country to cyber attack the west than any other country, with capability and investment there to carry it out. for the naked eye security is going to stay boring, for us geeks and media journalists alike, security is just going to get more boring, even if russia does cyber attack the west, there won't be much evidence from home and office computers, it will be upto high ranking folks to report an attack has been carried out. perhaps subscribing to lists like nanog may help to know if attacks are happening, its unlikely the government would admit a security breach has happened on their networks, unless there was a poltical strategy to make the public aware of it in order to soften them up for something bigger, like tighter cyber security laws and a lessening of privacy for consumers on the internet in the name of counter cyber terrorism. this is what governments do, they either do get attacked by a legitmate evil regime or they false flag attacks for themselves to get laws passed and be OK'd by public opinion. what i'm getting at is we know mainland terrorism is often false flagged by government, so could cyber false flagging be on the intelligence services agaenda next? they've already managed to manipulate us with mainland terrorism propaganda to get tighter controls on the nation, so could the threat not only be going to come from russial-like places, but from our own government false flagging cyber attacks as well. these are the two main problems the new dawn of the internet security scene is getting worried about, governments getting into cyber terrorism really is something the average joe should be concerned about, but not only concerned about but ready for, not only in terms of having secure patched systems, but in the mind not to fall for the united states government moving into cyber security as a tool to manipulate the average joe into OKing new laws that at the moment wouldn't be allowed by the public without major outcries and protests on the streets. mainland attacks in the false flagging side of things is far too costly right now with Iraq situation and other mid east operations, that the government aren't wanting more mainland issues to deal with, thats why cyber attacks against regimes are far more platable for the intelligence services right now. so what i'm i saying? are we going to have an attack by russia or a false flag attack by the united states to ramp up the anti cyber terrorism agenda in congress and across the wider world? we don't actually know, there is no specific intelligence to suggest its being planned by either governments, but thats not to say its not plausable and likely to happen in the future. as the government soak up whats going on in the middle east and more and more political figures come out to slam the mess that is iraq, a new third world war is ont he horizon, no not a war of missles and nukes, but a truely new war is potnetially unfolding and thats government cyber attacks by our own government and that of governments like russia who have now publically announced their not too happy with the west right now and that serious consequenes are likely for uk and its allies. don't switch off your computers yet folks, things are only warming up, but like i said before, you won't be able to switch on BBC News and CNN like you do with real life mainland attacks and be excited or alarmed by whats going on in cyber attacks, it will be a very boring affair to overlook and will continue to be a boring type of warfare for news outlets to report on and for the consumer to watch. that is of course unless our own government and russia want to attack our way of life by shutting down power stations and national train networks, then we might just see something watchable on BBC News and CNN, but for the most part, cyber attacks just aren't sexy enough for there to be enough stimulant for us to keep our computers switched on and still be interested in the cyber security scene, so people are still going to continue to get bored with the security scene and switch off in real numbers and stop ethical and malicious hacking, even though a new dawn of third world war is about to get underway."
link: http://international-hacker-n3td3v.blogspot.com/2007/07/hackers-are-giving-up-hacking.html _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
