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Inside the Attack that Crippled Revision3

revision3.com — As many of you know, Revision3’s servers were brought down over the Memorial Day weekend by a denial of service attack. It’s an all too common occurrence these days. But this one wasn’t your normal cybercrime – there’s a chilling twist at the end. Here’s what happened, and why we’re even more concerned today, after it’s over, than we were on Saturd

Who dugg this? Made popular May 29, 2008

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  • graemee, on 05/29/2008, -3/+1039Sue, for $750 to $150000 per packet.
  • HCviolence, on 05/29/2008, -2/+802mediadefender=corporate terrorists
  • blake10, on 05/29/2008, -20/+691that's outrageous...how could a company as large and well-known as mediadefender be so negligent and irresponsible?
  • adamkmccarthy, on 05/29/2008, -1/+650"Denial of service attacks are illegal in the US under 12 different statutes, including the Economic Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."

    I hope media defender get what's coming to them and revision3 are hard enough to follow through.
  • Fordi, on 05/29/2008, -4/+597Anyone have those IP addresses? I'm sure the Peerguardian would like to know them all.
  • johnbellone, on 05/29/2008, -1/+421I hope that Revision3 decides to take legal action against this company. I am pretty sure by taking advantage of an exploit that they broke a couple more laws than simply shutting you down this weekend. But companies like this need to understand that simply because they are connected to the Internet, they do not own anything that the touch, and cannot shut down another website simply because it is running a Bittorrent tracker.

    All I have to say is that they better be damn well hoping that when the FBI knocks on their door this wasn't manually added to their system, because if it was, they will have a lot more legal issues to deal with. Now that this was brought up, do they have their hands in the cookie jar on any other corporate trackers? For instance, Blizzard runs a tracker for World of Warcraft patches, is that now illegal too?

    There are many legitimate uses for Bittorrent. This is way out of line.
  • shoopdawoop, on 05/29/2008, -70/+365We must never forget how concerned we were on Saturd.
  • seanieb, on 05/29/2008, -5/+295Holy ***** this is big.....sue their asses back to the stone age!
  • DeadFox1, on 05/29/2008, -9/+277a good read. death to MediaDefender!
  • ni79, on 05/29/2008, -7/+273Media Defender is just a puppet it sounds like. The RIAA is not a scrupulous bunch. They are a large group of lawyers hell bent on making more money off the artists than the artists make.
  • insanemike, on 05/29/2008, -2/+253I'm just curious as to how many other innocent BT trackers they are slamming.

    I guess in the corporate world "guilty before proven innocent" is an acceptable modus operandi.
  • jpop, on 05/29/2008, -2/+230So anyone else curious as to what torrents MediaDefender was illegally putting on the Revision3 servers using a backdoor or exploit? This doesn't sound like an "oops" we made a mistake. It sounds like a deliberate use of Revision3's resources without their permission for MediaDefender's gain. Although, I imagine MediaDefender will come back and say "everyone was doing it", so it might be wise to check the other torrents listed.
  • rafacst, on 05/29/2008, -1/+227I wonder how many times can MediaDefender shoot themselves on the foot.
  • falafelkiosken, on 05/29/2008, -13/+213***** THE MEDIADEFENDER
  • jmreid, on 05/29/2008, -6/+195That sentence doesn't make sense in my brain. Large, well-known company that's negligent and irresponsible? Wow, shocking.
  • pxlpshr, on 09/04/2008, -13/+192MAILING ADDRESS:
    2461 Santa Monica Blvd., D-520
    Santa Monica, CA 90404

    PHONE: (310) 956-3300
    FAX: (310) 956-3391

    EMAIL
    Sales, Business Development, Partnerships
    sales@mediadefender.com

    General Info
    info@mediadefender.com

    Jobs
    jobs@mediadefender.com
  • oddworld19, on 05/29/2008, -3/+1579GBps internet line attacking Rev3.
    Thats why diggnation wouldnt download....
  • Flatlineskillz, on 05/29/2008, -2/+143MediaDefender has made the mistake of thinking that more people are on their side then Revision3's. I really hope someone is getting sued otherwise Cue Mick Dundee...

    "That's not a DOS attack, THIS is a DOS attack."
  • Crosshare, on 05/29/2008, -1/+140Wouldn't that be sweet justice?
  • MikeCerm, on 05/29/2008, -3/+139Negligent and irresponsible? I'm not sure those words apply. MediaDefender was just doing what it does. Unfortunately for them, what they do is illegal and totally unethical.

    We don't live in a world where people get to freely see vigilante justice when they feel that their rights are being violated, but that's exactly what MediaDefender attempts to do. Evidently they search for open trackers, start spamming bogus files, and logging connections. In the event that they're discovered, they kill the tracker with a DoS.

    Imagine that you suspect your neighbor was a drug dealer. Rather than calling the cops, which is what you should do so that the proper authorities can deal with any crimes that may have been committed, you decided to take matters into your own hands. You decide to stand on his lawn at night, offering drugs to anyone passing by. Instead of real drugs, you give them fake drugs. Eventually your neighbor figures out that someone's been dealing drugs on his lawn, and builds a fence. You burn down your neighbors house.

    Revision3 wasn't even doing anything wrong, and they were targeted and attacked. Rather than going through proper legal channels, various entities pay MediaDefender to attack people who it believes aren't respecting their copyrights, breaking laws in the process and doing serious damage. Revision3 should be taking legal action, and MediaDefender's customers should be held responsible as well. Prosecuting a hitman is one thing, but what about the mob boss that ordered the hit?
  • longbow486, on 05/29/2008, -0/+132you forget, The MAFIAA pays all their bills
  • eshirt, on 05/29/2008, -1/+133Dugg in hopes this is the straw that breaks Media Defender's back.
  • doctorcaligari, on 05/29/2008, -2/+130The best way to get an apology from a company: litigation. MediaDefender will not be truly sorry until they have lost a case or twelve. Use the same fuzzy laws that they "defend" against them. If the roles were reversed, they would be all over it.
  • marx2k, on 05/29/2008, -1/+122To: jobs@mediadefender.com
    From: marx2k

    Dear MediaDefender,

    I hate you. I also require $65,000 first year along with the standard full range of benefits for a mid-level Java architect. Oh. And I hate you.

    Thank you.
  • kamikazecow, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1168,000 packets a second, 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes in a hour, 24 hours in a day, 3 day weekend = 2,073,600,000, so at the lowest amount per packet (750$), they would owe Rev3 1,555,200,000,000$ That will make ya profitable!!
  • girldrinkdrunk, on 05/29/2008, -11/+122I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. In the meantime, I'm digging you down.
  • TTURabble, on 05/29/2008, -7/+114So the next article is going to be about how Revision3 is suing Media Defender, right?
  • tokyomonster, on 05/29/2008, -2/+108I'm going to mail the 8,000,000,000 postcards that say "hi".

    Old-school syn flood ftw.
  • AnimeCwboy, on 05/29/2008, -2/+101Seriously, sue these guys into oblivion. I'm just as concerned who commissioned the attack.
  • HomieG6189, on 05/29/2008, -2/+101So this is how low MediaDefender has gone to fight piracy? THEY deserved to be shutdown.
  • imabot, on 05/29/2008, -2/+100Now this will be entertaining..
  • The2ndAct, on 05/29/2008, -9/+107I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it
  • ericrous, on 05/29/2008, -4/+99I hope Revision3 sues them 'til their ***** a spewing blood.
  • orlyfactor, on 05/29/2008, -14/+107MediaDefender = Skynet.
  • stevenbrown, on 05/29/2008, -1/+91Media Defender - The internet's self appointed gestapos
  • eekfuh, on 05/29/2008, -6/+91What are you? A newsgroup user?
  • gimpbully, on 05/29/2008, -0/+83luckily, "everyone was doing it" is not a legally viable defense.
  • allyant, on 05/29/2008, -0/+72Now why would we want the email address for jobs?
  • jpop, on 05/29/2008, -0/+68I hope they do too. From what the article said, this doesn't sound like a company hitting a bittorrent tracker. It sounds like a company hacking another company's tracker to put up their torrents (probably to hide what they're doing in their other work), then doing a DOS attack when they finally get locked out.
  • Tr3mulant, on 05/29/2008, -0/+62There should be no question about the matter, legal action should be pursued. DoS is illegal uner 12 different stautes according to the article. It doesn't matter why it happened, it's illegal. There's no way in hell such a coordinated attack could have been accidental. Revision3 should push for legal action and the highest punishment allowed.
  • TheLD, on 05/29/2008, -1/+61Sue them and give any profit to the EFF. That's the best thing to do IMHO
  • snapplecap, on 05/29/2008, -11/+70We should flood media defenders ip
  • gimpbully, on 05/29/2008, -0/+58First off, we don't use linux, we use netBSD.
    Second, all of that is irrelevant if all your traffic flows through a PIX and load balancer (like a great portion of corporations).
  • cawpin, on 05/29/2008, -11/+69BT is faster than most connections can handle and it does have encryption available. Go away.
  • MadEnvoy, on 05/29/2008, -5/+62Never joke about Saturd. It's one of the holiest days of the Church of Turdology!
  • beatrixkiddo, on 05/29/2008, -2/+59Is that before or after Turday?
  • spectre_25gt, on 05/29/2008, -0/+56Quoth the douchebag:
    "If you don't know what I'm talking about you don't deserve to be using it."

    For someone that likes information to be free, you certainly don't seem to be willing to share much.
  • rjwisniewski, on 05/29/2008, -4/+59MediaDefender is going down. It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will happen.
  • whereiseljefe, on 05/29/2008, -6/+60MediaDefender ***** up bad this time...
  • oxdeltaxo, on 05/29/2008, -0/+53They have a seemingly infinite supply of foot bullets.
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