Frank Zappa long time ago, has written a little song about Gadi Evron and his blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpfX_2G9i6w On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Gadi Evron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I started answering an email an hour ago, and it was important enough to > spend time on. It also ended up being too long, so I dumped it in a blog > post if you prfer reading in a web browser. > http://gadievron.blogspot.com/2008/10/time-for-self-reflection.html > > Time for self reflection > In case you don't read any of what I have to say below, read this: I have > dual > citizenship. Along with my homeland citizenship, I am of the Internet, and > see > it as my personal duty to try and make the Internet safe. > > Atrivo (also known as Intercage), is a network known to host criminal > activity > for many years, is no more. > > Not being sarcastic for once, this is time for some self reflection. > > I wish I was one of those who sleep soundly tonight. Being clear in my > conviction that Atrivo should be out of business, and being positive my > decision to help that happen was sound--While I would do it again, I am > sad. > > I won't sleep soundly tonight, as that company, criminal and abusive as it > clearly and contemptuously was, still sustained quite a few families in > several > layers of employment, from sysadmins sitting in the US of A all the way to > minor low-level fraudsters employed by their clients' clients. > > I will however, be able to look myself in the mirror for my part in the > effort to get rid of them--and even gloat some. My conscious is as clear to > me > as my sadness is crystal. We may not have changed the wall of battle in the > long term and whenever one criminal falls, another jumps up to the > opportunities of the land of the free--the Internet. But for once, just for > a > while, we halted the machine. We stopped the wheels of evil, even if only > for a > fortnight. > > While doing so, ee also touched some lives in a destructive fashion. The > criminals'. > > No villain ever sees himself as the bad guy, as the saying goes. A friend > recently showed me Russian language comments written on Brian Krebs' recent > Washington Post story. In them, the posters ask: "why do you take our bread > away?" > > In a lecture during ISOI 5, some folks just didn't understand the meaning. > Their bread. Their bread. We in the Western world, behind the cultural > divide > speak a different language. Their culture isn't poorer than ours, it is > unequivocally different. > > We can not truly comprehend what it means for some folks in Russia to no > longer > be able to feed their children this month. Nor can we understand that by > sending email, we made those children starve. Cheap theatrics on my part, > you > say? You got that right. It doesn't make it any less true. > > Cyber crime is a war waged against the Western world. At first, no one even > noticed and it was a niche.. an art. While the artists still exist, they > are a > minority, the hackers. For the criminals however, motive is as irrelevant > as > nationality. Whatever actions are taken, be it a political defacement, > fraud or > spam, the unavoidable secondary impact remains the same: damage to the > Western > economy and security in an exponential growth which will become ever > clearer in > the coming years. > > Yes, my friends. I would do the same again. I feel sorry for Atrivo, but > they > were harboring the equivalent for the Internet of active missile launchers > firing on Israel from the Gaza strip. They are human beings who hit a curve > in > the road to their success. Cyber criminals, however, establish such growth > as > parasites and whatever I may feel for needing to resort to the end game > weaponry, these people need to be smacked down like cockroaches. > > Ten years ago they were a pride to their parents, today they are a scourge. > What will they be in ten years? > > If all reasonable and even some unreasonable approaches fail. That does not > mean I don't have to feel sorry for them, and me. But it also doesn't mean > we > don't need to fight back. > > Not even a hundred years ago, disastrously, war was business and an > acceptable horrifying part of life. A few years later, in 1918, war was > unthinkable. In the century since we who live in or are influenced by > Western culture made war no longer an option we can publicly stomach, while > facing those who would play us like children because of it. > > War is horrifying and evil, it is also a last resort in a world not as > ascendant as we would like to think. The Internet has its own "liberals" > and I > am proud to be one of them. However, I am also practical and see that > wishing > for a world we once had is not. A world where I could host files on my > neighbor's servers openly, where children could happily use pocket > calculators > and go to libraries for their school work rather than Google and read > Wikipedia. You did so, do your children? > > This new world has its price, and that price is a complete loss of public > privacy, and a culture of ineffective security. > > We are reliant on our Auntie Jane's computer knowledge for our own > security, > and while not many would follow us to our bathrooms to infringe on our > personal > privacy, online we have no privacy, however much it helps us to lie to > ourselves that something we do publicly (read, on the Internet) is private. > > I accepted that, but that is because I am in the trenches for years. Others > live better not knowing. But it doesn't mean I won't work diligently to > make it > remain.. functional. > > Indeed, taking a step back from my niche in security, and seeing how bad > things > truly are--people can still surf for porn, and argue over who the best Star > Trek captain is. Cyber crime, in all its immense activity of billions of > incidents an hour, is background noise. But the background noise > continually > increases. When will it overflow? > > All I really want is to maintain the functionality we have, regardless of > the > abuse. And yet... Going back to Atrivo, they made enough money by now. And > regardless once more, their criminal clients are already back online > elsewhere--in some places possibly hosted by what seems like Atrivo, only > under > a different name. > > We did not win, but boy does it feel good to have a victory once in a while > for > morale's sake. We halted the machine, even if only just for a short time. > That, > my friends, also has strategic implications as far as our ability is to > influence networks running clean on the Internet, although only time will > determine if I am right on that. > > Enough whining though. Who is next on the target list? :) > > More seriously, why do I care so much? I have dual citizenship. Along with > my > homeland citizenship, I am of the Internet, and see it as my personal duty > to > try and make the Internet safe. > > Gadi Evron, > Of the Internet. > > _______________________________________________ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html > Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ >
_______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/