[AusNOG] census issues tonight

[Mark Andrews]

In message <CAOu9xNLNGYX01RTSx21J4V-DZJ0fnnbw8sfZsGnvmmdOhGd3sA at mail.gmail.com>, Robert Hudson writes:
> Yeah, the truth hurt on that one, apparently. :)
> 
> A bit like the truth that yes, the site could crash, and yes, it could be
> hacked, despite a bunch of promises to the contrary. No-one in their right
> mind makes such absolute claims, they were always on a hiding to nowhere on
> that one.
> 
> For what it is worth, whilst a DDoS is not strictly a hacking attempt, it
> can be a pre-cursor to one, designed to soften a target or start causing
> errors which can then be exploited.
> 
> I wonder what (if anything) our esteemed government and public servants
> will learn from this.

Hopefully they will learn that we need consumer protection laws
which require manufactures to supply regular security updates for
all internet connectable equipment for free for a minimum of 10
years after last customer shipping.

Almost all DoS attacks are launched from compromised equipment most
of which would not have been a viable launch platform if manufactures
supplied security updates and they where applied.

And before anyone says "these attacks were launched from overseas"
they could have equally have been launched from inside Australia.

It only takes a single Government to take the lead on this type of
stuff for the world to follow.

Mark
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org