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Outrageous proposal time: NSL DDoS. Let's say I own a business. Every week, I get two dozen letters purporting to be from the FBI requesting information on my

by Cushman 16y ago

Outrageous proposal time: NSL DDoS. Let's say I own a business. Every week, I get two dozen letters purporting to be from the FBI requesting information on my customers. Some of the requests are clearly ridiculous; others might be genuine. If they are genuine, I'm forbidden from discussing them over the phone; the requests aren't a matter of public record, so I can't look them up; I don't have a secure fax, I run an internet company. I could tell my lawyer about it, but he'd be subject to the same restrictions as me. My only options are either to submit an individual request for verification for each letter by delivery service, or comply with every request I receive, deluging the FBI with frivolous documents. Either way, thousands of companies attempting to comply with dozens of such requests every week and the secret police system would quickly grind to a halt. To be followed shortly by a lengthy prison sentence — if they're lucky — for anyone participating in the fabrication of government documents, of course. Still, it's a fascinating prospect.

bobds 16y ago
Your proposal has some interesting implications. There's a bunch of services offering web-to-snail-mail facilities. Some of them even offer an API, so this could in theory be automated.
- bradleyland 16y ago
  Someone has to pay the bill, which means someone will go to jail. The only reason online DDoS attacks are perpetrated successfully is because of the relative ease of execution and the anonymity provided by an internet connection. Still, even with the loosely connected identifying information available about your internet connection, the FBI is issuing warrants [1] for participants in recent DDoS attacks. A paper campaign's only chance for success would be if individuals physically printed and mailed the letters anonymously by posting them in a public mailbox. Investigators would have to rely on traditional investigatory methods like finger prints and mysterious printer identification dots [2], which work much slower. 1 - http://www.google.com/search?q=fbi+ddos+anonymous+warrant http://www.google.com/search?q=fbi+ddos+anonymous+warrant 2 - http://boingboing.net/2008/10/23/howto-read-the-secre.html http://boingboing.net/2008/10/23/howto-read-the-secre.html

by Cushman 16y ago

bobds 16y ago

Your proposal has some interesting implications. There's a bunch of services offering web-to-snail-mail facilities. Some of them even offer an API, so this could in theory be automated.

bradleyland 16y ago
Someone has to pay the bill, which means someone will go to jail. The only reason online DDoS attacks are perpetrated successfully is because of the relative ease of execution and the anonymity provided by an internet connection. Still, even with the loosely connected identifying information available about your internet connection, the FBI is issuing warrants [1] for participants in recent DDoS attacks. A paper campaign's only chance for success would be if individuals physically printed and mailed the letters anonymously by posting them in a public mailbox. Investigators would have to rely on traditional investigatory methods like finger prints and mysterious printer identification dots [2], which work much slower. 1 - http://www.google.com/search?q=fbi+ddos+anonymous+warrant http://www.google.com/search?q=fbi+ddos+anonymous+warrant 2 - http://boingboing.net/2008/10/23/howto-read-the-secre.html http://boingboing.net/2008/10/23/howto-read-the-secre.html