GNG News Guy
05-30-2008, 09:40 AM
http://i.dslr.net/urls/90/13090.gif (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hackers-Speak-94853)
Yesterday I reported (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hacked-94826) how hackers had managed to compromise Comcast's domain information at Network Solutions, destroying millions of Comcast customers' ability to reach the Comcast portal, webmail and official forums. Wired News (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/comcast-hijacke.html) has a conversation with the hackers behind the attack, who say they used a combination of social engineering (aka tricking dumb people) and a technical hack to get into Comcast's domain management console at Network Solutions. Once in, the hackers had control of 200 Comcast domain names: Comcast, they said, noticed the administrative transfer and wrested back control, forcing the hackers to repeat the exploit to regain ownership of the domain. Then, they say, they contacted Comcast's original technical contact at his home number to tell him what they'd done. When the Comcast manager scoffed at their claim and hung up on them, 18-year-old EBK decided to take the more drastic measure of redirecting the site's traffic to servers under their control. (Comcast would neither confirm nor deny the warning phone call.)
"If he wasn't such a prick, he could have avoided all of that," says EBK. "I wasn't even really thinking. Plus, I'm just so mad at Comcast. I'm tired of their shitty service."
The rest is pretty well documented in our front page story (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hacked-94826) and 25 page forum thread (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20555206-Comcast-hacked). I'll note the hackers claim that no personal information transfers were involved, something Comcast agrees with. They also denied some reports that claimed the attack was a retaliation for Comcast's throttling of upstream BitTorrent traffic.Thursday, the pair were dealing with their newfound fame, laughing over the press coverage with a mix of glee and nervous excitement. Some reports have speculated that the hackers were retaliating for Comcast's recent sabotage of BitTorrent traffic; Defiant and EBK say that's false: they just hate Comcast in general. "I'm sure they hate us too," says Defiant.
read comment(s) (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hackers-Speak-94853)
Yesterday I reported (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hacked-94826) how hackers had managed to compromise Comcast's domain information at Network Solutions, destroying millions of Comcast customers' ability to reach the Comcast portal, webmail and official forums. Wired News (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/comcast-hijacke.html) has a conversation with the hackers behind the attack, who say they used a combination of social engineering (aka tricking dumb people) and a technical hack to get into Comcast's domain management console at Network Solutions. Once in, the hackers had control of 200 Comcast domain names: Comcast, they said, noticed the administrative transfer and wrested back control, forcing the hackers to repeat the exploit to regain ownership of the domain. Then, they say, they contacted Comcast's original technical contact at his home number to tell him what they'd done. When the Comcast manager scoffed at their claim and hung up on them, 18-year-old EBK decided to take the more drastic measure of redirecting the site's traffic to servers under their control. (Comcast would neither confirm nor deny the warning phone call.)
"If he wasn't such a prick, he could have avoided all of that," says EBK. "I wasn't even really thinking. Plus, I'm just so mad at Comcast. I'm tired of their shitty service."
The rest is pretty well documented in our front page story (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hacked-94826) and 25 page forum thread (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20555206-Comcast-hacked). I'll note the hackers claim that no personal information transfers were involved, something Comcast agrees with. They also denied some reports that claimed the attack was a retaliation for Comcast's throttling of upstream BitTorrent traffic.Thursday, the pair were dealing with their newfound fame, laughing over the press coverage with a mix of glee and nervous excitement. Some reports have speculated that the hackers were retaliating for Comcast's recent sabotage of BitTorrent traffic; Defiant and EBK say that's false: they just hate Comcast in general. "I'm sure they hate us too," says Defiant.
read comment(s) (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Domain-Hackers-Speak-94853)