Information about Hacking (not what you think)

[Ken Korda]

First of all I want to make it clear I am NOT looking for information on how to hack anything or the locations for any game hacks or anything of that nature.

So, it's the time of year when we have to start choosing the topic for our dissertations and I was thinking about writing something on cyber-terrorism and the potential threats on European Governments. After the attacks on the Estonian government ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6665195.stm ) there is plenty of material on conceptualisation of cyber-terrorism in a security sense. However, my concern is being relatively unkowledgable regarding computer science, will I be able to learn enough about the process involved to write anything coherent.

I wanted to ask, does anyone know of anywhere, be it online or printed matter, where I could learn about the methods which could be used against governments? I only need a rough outline, I certainly am NOT looking for suffcient inforamtion to attempt anything of this nature. I just need to know whether or not I will be able to understand the more technical aspects of this potential project.

Thanks for the help.

And I can't use wikipedia a it is not considered an official source

 

[meatloaf231]

I can't use wikipedia a it is not considered an official source

But you can use the sources/references wikipedia cites at the bottom.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

I sense a disturbance in the force~

Lock this one, I smell a trap

 

[Ken Korda]

I sense a disturbance in the force~

Lock this one, I smell a trap

I was concerned this was going to come across like that and if it does appear questionable or against the rules than I can only apologise. I don't really know how to prove I am not trying to do anything unsavoury with the information. If you can think of anything I could do to show that this is a genuine request let me know.
Otherwise just lock this

 

[O maestre]

really depends on what kind of attack it is...it could be everything from code shenanigans to an intranet activation virus.. i do know a few sites, but most of them deal in html education and exploits..., however there are a few online guides from the internet's infancy, on how old fashion virus' were made

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Your best bet is to talk to the resource librarian; either at a reasonably-large public library or at a university library if there's one near-by. Aiming people at the right resources is what they do... and they'll be far better able to judge what books or articles would be best for your purposes than us schlubs here.

-- Steve

 

[jasoncyrus]

Why would anyone wanna hack the estonian government...? It's even more of a dump than the friggen pentagon computers. (which are probably easier to hack)

 

[Esdras]

Why would anyone wanna hack the estonian government...? It's even more of a dump than the friggen pentagon computers. (which are probably easier to hack)

An Estonian boy who was mad at his country for moving a statue, shut down banking websites. At least that's what I heard.

2600 is the only one I can think of off the top of my head (Although they never print anything that would be used to cause harm to people.) Maybe write something on the storm bot-net?

 

[Arcticflame]

Look up DDoS attacks. They are interesting, and rather simple apparently. A gaming server host I was once with got DDoS'ed by some kid and actually took the kid to court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDoS

 

[crimsondynamics]

If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of hacking and cracking, try astalavista.

But be prepared to be utterly and completely overwhelmed with the amount of research and reading you will have to do.

 

[Alex_P]

For ideas on "Internet warfare" strategy, see Unrestricted Warfare by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. Wikipedia link has a link to the translated text [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Warfare_(book)]. I recommend not buying the book because of the rabid scaremongering that's part of the published English version's presentation. For the same reason, you should be careful of political language in translations -- it may be artificially inflated by a translator with an agenda.

For a detailed account of (old-school) network espionage, see The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. Good book.

-- Alex

 

[Yog Sothoth]

If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of hacking and cracking, try astalavista.

But be prepared to be utterly and completely overwhelmed with the amount of research and reading you will have to do.

i was just going to suggest that site as well.. loads of internet security info there....