NY Times: HacK, CouNterHaCk | Linux Today

NY Times: HacK, CouNterHaCk

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Oct 3, 1999

The members of L0pht can knock you off line, steal your
credit-card numbers and cut off the power for your whole
neighborhood. But they’d like you to think they’re the good
guys…

“We sit down at a computer monitor while Sili explains his
latest discovery. By mimicking messages that typically flow between
computers on a network, he can reach out to almost anyone running
Windows 95, 98 or 2000 in a large corporate environment, or anyone
using a cable modem, and forcibly disconnect them from the
Web…”

“L0pht’s “research” consists of trying to break into these
internal systems. Upon discovering a security flaw in
commercial-network software, the L0phties publish an advisory on
their Web site. The advisory is a double-edged sword: a detailed
description of the flaw – enough information for other hackers to
duplicate the “exploit” – and a solution that tells network
administrators how to close the loophole.”


Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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