The New Face of Script Kiddiez

An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blog has an interesting post profiling the activities of a kid named Witlog who controls a botnet of roughly 30,000 hacked Windows PCs. Even after the authorities manage to shut down the network Witlog uses to control his bots, he pops up somewhere else. From the article: 'Witlog may in fact be the product of a new generation of script kiddiez; the chief distinguishing feature of this generation being that instead of using Web site flaws to deface as many Web sites as possible, these guys are breaking into thousands of home and work PCs and taking them for a virtual joyride, often times all the way to the bank.'"

Could be helpful

[gEvil (beta)]

...these guys are breaking into thousands of home and work PCs and taking them for a virtual joyride, often times all the way to the bank.

Great! Maybe he can reconcile my account balance while he's there.

The New Face of Script Kiddiez...

[Anonymous Coward]

...is just as pimply as the old face.

the only feature

[Anonymous Coward]

that should be distinctive on this "new face" is that it's either:

* Bruised and bloodied from the clue by four that's been applied; or

* mouth wide open screaming as his cell mate takes a new "wife."

Re:New Face

[gEvil (beta)]

...or some other place where the laws of the U.S. are not particularly respected.

I don't even know where to begin with a comment like that... : /

Last line of the article

[Spy der Mann]

"At least one machine that he showed me from his botnet was located inside of a major U.S. defense contractor."

Ah, the irony...

Re:Lucky Bastards

[Ben Newman]

Not really. That might have been the case when you actually needed to know something to be a "hacker", but this kid is just downloading tools from other places. I doubt he knows what TCP/IP is.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Arest Some SysAdmins Too?

[BoRegardless]

Like which System Admin of a large government contractor is not aware of network security in this day and age, which would allow compromised computers and connections to the outside world?

Somebody needs pull up this guy and say

[k1980pc]

It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you... help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias "Neo" and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.
I'm sorry, I just watched matrix today again, so all my comments today might reflect it..i will go back to my cave till i'm off it.....

New genre of script kiddie

[this great guy]

Would seem to imply a new genre of script kiddie, such as old people doing it,

Like Script Daddiez.

Hmmm

[CaffeineAddict2001]

Imagine if these bot nets did something more subtle... like.. turning a single random pixel black or slightly fudging the movement of the mouse. Warranty Havoc!! Gawd that would suck.

Re:Just link the punk to terrorist

[Urusai]

Yeah, we'll catch him like Osama!

In Korea,

[weierstrass]

..only old people run botnets.

Re:New Face

[winse]

They aren't hackers. They can't even claim to be crackers. They run a kit with as little thought to how it works as an Excel user thinks about the math and programming behind the interface. It's just a tool to them.

I totally agree. Why back in our day we had WRITE our own exploits, some people just older than me had to WRITE their own compiler to compile their own hand written 'sploits, and that's only if they finished their other chores first. It was uphill both ways.

The only real crime here is that criminal some dumb people leverage the work of the truly brilliant.

toungue in cheek

Re:Lucky Bastards

[Dretep]

And what kind of name is witlog? It's like cunningpoop...

Or Eightyford....

Honey, they'll make fun of him if we name him Dick

[Anonymous Coward]

the activities of a kid named Witlog

Man, what were his parents thinking?!

Re:New Face

[Anonymous Coward]

Now my memory may be at fault here, but I seem to recall an old-school phreak who was arrested for "Theft of Electricity".

Now THAT's a proper crime ;)

(this was in the UK, but I can't be bothered looking up the law at the time)

Re:Lucky Bastards

[ebyrob]

And what kind of name is witlog? It's like cunningpoop, or something.

I guess he doesn't want people to think he's a dumbshit.

(Sorry, but you all know it had to be said!)

Re:New Face

[Reziac]

Kids these days, you've got it too easy. Back in MY day, we had to first build our own servers if we wanted something to break into!

Re:New Face

[NormalVisual]

Damn kids and your "servers". When *I* was young, it was a bit tougher - ever tried to root an abacus?