Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: SteveyMcBobbyPants on June 20, 2012, 09:47 pm

Title: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: SteveyMcBobbyPants on June 20, 2012, 09:47 pm
Real talk guys.

I hope you guys have read about the US/Israel shutting down the nuclear enrichment facilities/oil terminals in Iran using computer viruses. This raises a question about Silk Road. If the US can shut down industrial facilities using nothing more than an infected flash drive, what is stopping them from shutting down an illegal marketplace that operates on a network built by the State Department? I'm just having a hard time figuring out how Silk Road hasn't been shut down when the US could clearly do it if they wanted to. Thoughts?
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 20, 2012, 10:24 pm
Lord, give me strength


The Iranian governments computer security, even in their military nuclear facilities, was simply doo doo. They were using Microsoft Windows. And they are pretty much the biggest threat to the USA and Israel, as  rogue states go.

The End.




Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: MockFrog on June 20, 2012, 10:29 pm
And they are pretty much the biggest threat to the USA and Israel, as  rogue states go.

The End.
Excuse me while I grab my sides or this will hurt too much. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

And HA!

MockFrog
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: sourman on June 20, 2012, 10:33 pm
They certainly can if they wanted to. It's not very hard for them to put together a worm that attacks undisclosed vulnerabilities (0-day exploits) and spreads through email, "drive by download" links, etc. while remaining undetectable to antimalware solutions and even most HIPS based defenses. However, it becomes much harder when you're attacking security conscious, even paranoid individuals who use the latest software versions, don't run scripts, and don't open any correspondence from people they don't know. It would probably be easier and cheaper for them to sneak very talented undercover agents on here or just use bitch ass informants, like they did with pretty much every other underground, darknet-and-encryption-protected market or hacking crew.

Now, if SR ever becomes a "national security threat"--whatever that means these days--then I would watch out for the crazy, undetectable super malware on steroids and hGH. That may very well be their silver bullet. Well, more like Platinum bullet, because these "nation-state viruses" cost more than many of you can imagine and, like a bullet, they can only be used once. Give it a few years though and the super government malware will become much cheaper, especially if security software and OS security keeps lagging behind the way it has been.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 20, 2012, 10:43 pm
And they are pretty much the biggest threat to the USA and Israel, as  rogue states go.

The End.
Excuse me while I grab my sides or this will hurt too much. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

And HA!

MockFrog

Good point, what I meant to say is that that's how the USA and Israel perceive it.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: MockFrog on June 21, 2012, 12:11 am
And they are pretty much the biggest threat to the USA and Israel, as  rogue states go.

The End.
Excuse me while I grab my sides or this will hurt too much. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

And HA!

MockFrog

Good point, what I meant to say is that that's how the USA and Israel perceive it.
OK, that's better then. Because really, I've never seen so much propaganda to demonize a cointry than what these two do.

MockFrog
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: kmfkewm on June 21, 2012, 12:41 am
Real talk guys.

I hope you guys have read about the US/Israel shutting down the nuclear enrichment facilities/oil terminals in Iran using computer viruses. This raises a question about Silk Road. If the US can shut down industrial facilities using nothing more than an infected flash drive, what is stopping them from shutting down an illegal marketplace that operates on a network built by the State Department? I'm just having a hard time figuring out how Silk Road hasn't been shut down when the US could clearly do it if they wanted to. Thoughts?

Wearing a stab vest will protect you in a knife fight but not from someone with a gun. The US intelligence community has guns, but the feds still fight with knives. If the NSA, CIA etc wanted SR gone it would be history by now. They don't generally bother with such things though.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: oscarzululondon on June 21, 2012, 12:50 am
They were using Microsoft Windows

Actually Iran doesn't use Microsoft Windows for it's nuclear facilities, it uses a specialist Unix based operating system made by the German company Siemens, based on the same system that traffic lights in the US run on. However the rest of your point stands, they basically had no protection.

Anyway all of this debate is irrelevant, Obama & Israel are just waiting until Obama is reelected so he can give Israel the green light to prepare the nukes. Iran knows this, which is why they are now making a pitiful attempt at diplomacy after decades of trolling America. It all hinders on the outcome of Syria.

If the NSA, CIA etc wanted SR gone it would be history by now. They don't generally bother with such things though.

Exactly. SR is small fry.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: trava on June 21, 2012, 11:38 am
They were using Microsoft Windows

Actually Iran doesn't use Microsoft Windows for it's nuclear facilities, it uses a specialist Unix based operating system made by the German company Siemens, based on the same system that traffic lights in the US run on. However the rest of your point stands, they basically had no protection.

Anyway all of this debate is irrelevant, Obama & Israel are just waiting until Obama is reelected so he can give Israel the green light to prepare the nukes. Iran knows this, which is why they are now making a pitiful attempt at diplomacy after decades of trolling America. It all hinders on the outcome of Syria.

If the NSA, CIA etc wanted SR gone it would be history by now. They don't generally bother with such things though.

Exactly. SR is small fry.

they only started using Unix based OS after the stutnex attack, before that they indeed used windows

no one is gona nuke anyone and irans influence in the ME wont last long once assad falls, and theres no guarantee israel will wait because obama is being a dick with israel

anyways comparing SR to geopolitical affairs is absurd, CIA probably will end up using SR one day to fund some militias or insurgencies 
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 21, 2012, 11:51 am
they only started using Unix based OS after the stutnex attack, before that they indeed used windows

Yup, I was led to believe that Stuxnet was a Windows based virus. Not impossible to create a virus like Stuxnet that has both Unix and Windows attack vectors in the same rootkit package though, so there could be something in what OZL is saying. Although I expect the technical challenge (certainly making the file size small) would be pretty tough.

no one is gona nuke anyone and irans influence in the ME wont last long once assad falls, and theres no guarantee israel will wait because obama is being a dick with israel

anyways comparing SR to geopolitical affairs is absurd, CIA probably will end up using SR one day to fund some militias or insurgencies

What makes you think that some of these corrupt world leaders/bankers/financiers/company directors aren't massive financial beneficiaries of the way drug money flows through the established money system? They control the system from the top down, the idea that they have no motivation for subverting it so as to take some of these absolutely vast sums of cash created by the world drug trade is, frankly, laughable.

This place could (potentially) ruin their business
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: DarkwingDuck on June 21, 2012, 04:12 pm
A very worrying event, that stuxnet/flame bullshit.

It shows that if you throw enough money at a team of nerds to come up with something absolutely new and with no limits, they can produce amazing/terrifying things. If SilkRoad was in their sights, I'm sure there wouldn't be too much that could be prevented to stop it.

I just hope the admins don't post any detail on how they run their servers or what their security is. Do as best as you can boys, we're all here to support you.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 21, 2012, 04:43 pm
It shows that if you throw enough money at a team of nerds to come up with something absolutely new and with no limits, they can produce amazing/terrifying things. If SilkRoad was in their sights, I'm sure there wouldn't be too much that could be prevented to stop it.

Weird in the very same breath, you mention the Silk Road itself. The Silk Road should be "amazing/terrifying" to those trying to bring it down. It's been said before, they've had a long time to deal with SR, and they've so far gained zero ground.

Bitcoin is infinitely more powerful a concept than the best malware government programmers can produce. THey themselves (government programmers)  are going to find it difficult not to admiore Bitcoin the more they begin to understand about how it is designed.

Long term, they have no chance (and have had no chance up until now)


Die FUDtrolls. Or join us, we're winning (http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=18144.msg181442)
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: oscarzululondon on June 21, 2012, 08:15 pm
they only started using Unix based OS after the stutnex attack, before that they indeed used windows 

No they didn't. Do you think that nuclear refinement centrifuges run on Windows? Don't be silly. They never have, had, are and never will.

The only thing about the whole Iran saga that ran on Windows was the personal laptops of the physicists which is what was hacked, and all the Israelis were able to get hold of was Facebook photos and rough details about how far along the nuclear path Iran are, they didn't actually directly affect  the nuclear machinery or process.

Israel has better success using suitcase bombs to blow up Iranian physicists cars when they're dropping their kids off at school, which it has done several times now.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 21, 2012, 08:35 pm
they only started using Unix based OS after the stutnex attack, before that they indeed used windows 

No they didn't. Do you think that nuclear refinement centrifuges run on Windows? Don't be silly. They never have, had, are and never will.

That's a rather bold and, might I say (and it's rich coming from me) unnecessarily pugnacious remark. I agree that it sounds unlikely that anyone, particularly Iranian military scientists, would be using Windows to run uranium refinement centrifuges.

Is it impossible? No.

Is it possible that Iran was using Windows for refinement purposes, and somehow leaked the "Facebook photos/we use Unix" story as a way of controlling the Public Relations fallout of Stuxnet? Yes.

Quite simply, neither you, I, or anyone else have irrefutable proof of what happened, instead we have the stories that either side has told us.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: Horizons on June 21, 2012, 10:54 pm
I give zero fucks about this. Everyone already knew this sort of thing happened, the only thing that changed is that three spy programs got found out. There's at least thirty more from several other countries.

Another reason why I give zero fucks is because I am completely powerless to change this, so if it's gonna happen anyway I'm better off not being upset. Like my father always said, a problem with no solution is a problem solved.

And like my drunken uncle always said, if you're gonna get raped, relax and try to cum first.
Title: Re: Stuxnet/Flame and Silk Road
Post by: AbraCadaver on June 22, 2012, 12:54 am
I give zero fucks about this. Everyone already knew this sort of thing happened, the only thing that changed is that three spy programs got found out. There's at least thirty more from several other countries.

Another reason why I give zero fucks is because I am completely powerless to change this, so if it's gonna happen anyway I'm better off not being upset. Like my father always said, a problem with no solution is a problem solved.

And like my drunken uncle always said, if you're gonna get raped, relax and try to cum first.

+1

uncle comment destroyed me