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This reminds me of my friends that used to take over botnets and turn them on the C&C servers of other botnets. One guy tried to pay in bitcoin to get his botne

This reminds me of my friends that used to take over botnets and turn them on the C&C servers of other botnets. One guy tried to pay in bitcoin to get his botnet back. That would have been a couple million dollars worth these days... :-/

gricardo99 5y ago
sounds fascinating, and fraught with peril. I'd be worried that either I'd make myself a target for these hackers/scammers, or law enforcement. Granted most of the hackers/scammers probably aren't very skilled, but if you crossed one that really knew what they were doing... yikes! I'd also be worried the FBI would eventually come knocking. I'm not so sure the FBI would distinguish between someone "liberating" a botnet and turning it against the original hacker, and the hackers/scammers themselves.
- 0xbadcafebee 5y ago
  It's not that risky. Most people over-estimate both the criminals and law enforcement. In general, the FBI aren't looking for you. Somebody has to lose a lot of money and report you, or rat you out, or make up some bullshit about terrorism (like SWATing for black hats). It's also not hard to hide your connections from them. The people who get caught are ratted out by their friends and are very predictable. In terms of "crossing someone"... these are script kiddies who paid for some malware on a forum, or paid for someone to build them a botnet. Most takeovers happen via social engineering... these people aren't very smart. Even if a criminal gang wanted to track someone down, it would be pretty hard if you did the least amount of covering yourself and didn't tell anyone. But hackers can be lazy and have big mouths, so...
unstatusthequo 5y ago
And unfortunately “hacking back” is still hacking according to the laws of the U.S. currently. Which might explain why cyber crime is way up. No downside for threat actors.
- r00fus 5y ago
  So do we need some "privateers" or would that be too dangerous?
  - Y_Y 5y ago
    Just live in Tunisia or Barbados like a real pirate.
- wmf 5y ago
  I think there have been a few exceptions where US authorities have authorized "technical action" against botnets and such.
  - mrkramer 5y ago
    Unauthorized computer access in still unauthorized doesn't matter if you hack back and take over a botnet from cyber-criminals. Yea there are exceptions where US authorities together with Microsoft sinkhole, takeover and shut down botnets. Why Microsoft? Because majority of botnets are botnets of compromised Windows computers.

gricardo99 5y ago

sounds fascinating, and fraught with peril. I'd be worried that either I'd make myself a target for these hackers/scammers, or law enforcement. Granted most of the hackers/scammers probably aren't very skilled, but if you crossed one that really knew what they were doing... yikes! I'd also be worried the FBI would eventually come knocking. I'm not so sure the FBI would distinguish between someone "liberating" a botnet and turning it against the original hacker, and the hackers/scammers themselves.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago
It's not that risky. Most people over-estimate both the criminals and law enforcement. In general, the FBI aren't looking for you. Somebody has to lose a lot of money and report you, or rat you out, or make up some bullshit about terrorism (like SWATing for black hats). It's also not hard to hide your connections from them. The people who get caught are ratted out by their friends and are very predictable. In terms of "crossing someone"... these are script kiddies who paid for some malware on a forum, or paid for someone to build them a botnet. Most takeovers happen via social engineering... these people aren't very smart. Even if a criminal gang wanted to track someone down, it would be pretty hard if you did the least amount of covering yourself and didn't tell anyone. But hackers can be lazy and have big mouths, so...

unstatusthequo 5y ago

And unfortunately “hacking back” is still hacking according to the laws of the U.S. currently. Which might explain why cyber crime is way up. No downside for threat actors.

r00fus 5y ago
So do we need some "privateers" or would that be too dangerous?
- Y_Y 5y ago
  Just live in Tunisia or Barbados like a real pirate.
wmf 5y ago
I think there have been a few exceptions where US authorities have authorized "technical action" against botnets and such.
- mrkramer 5y ago
  Unauthorized computer access in still unauthorized doesn't matter if you hack back and take over a botnet from cyber-criminals. Yea there are exceptions where US authorities together with Microsoft sinkhole, takeover and shut down botnets. Why Microsoft? Because majority of botnets are botnets of compromised Windows computers.