Month: September 2022

Telecoms Group Wants to DDoS IPTV Pirates Off The Internet

In most regions of the world, the problem of IPTV piracy isn’t going away, despite attempts to take illegal services down using enforcement agencies and ISP blocking. In Hungary a new anti-piracy option has been placed on the table – cyberattacks against IPTV pirates. What could possibly go wrong?

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

hackerLike most online services, pirate IPTV platforms use regular domains, IP addresses, websites, servers, and cloud services. But unlike most regular online platforms, they already know that rightsholders are watching their every move.

This means that they are mostly prepared for domain seizures and similar interference, IP address and DNS blocking, attempts to cut off payment processing, plus any other measures from the smorgasbord currently available.

No doubt that this is a major irritant for rightsholders attempting to shut them down. But what if there was another way, one that didn’t rely on the success of any of the above but is considered a crime?

Authorities Fail to Act

In common with its counterparts around the world, the Hungarian Communications Association (MKSZ) also has to deal with illegal IPTV services. The group says it has reported more than 100 illegal distributors to the authorities in recent years, but investigations are slow and ineffective.

Since 2018, just one case has been closed and while that ended in a guilty verdict and a damages award, the accompanying one-year suspended prison sentence wasn’t enough for the rightsholders looking to send a deterrent message.

As a result, they’d like to begin launching cyberattacks instead.

Cyberattacks – A Valid Option to Fight Piracy?

According to a statement sent to Hungary’s Media1, the Hungarian Communications Association says it is initiating a round table discussion with domestic stakeholders, including legislators, copyright holders, neighboring rights holders, Internet service providers, and broadcasters. The aim is to discover whether it’s possible to launch DDoS attacks against IPTV providers while enjoying protection under the law. The premise is as follows:

“For the sake of legal validity and international transparency, RIPE, at the initiative of the Hungarian communications authority, should designate a certain IPv4/IPv6 address range for the use of legal and registered DDOS attacks and make it publicly available,” the proposal reads.

“The authority should appoint a suitable professional organization, which would be entitled – subject to the necessary level of official supervision and control – after a preliminary expert investigation based on a stakeholder report, with the appropriate legal authorization, against the detected illegal service IP addresses launched from the authorized DDoS address range for a legitimate DDoS attack.”

DDoS Attack – Again and Again

If sanctioned, MKSZ believes such an attack would degrade the quality of an illegal distributor’s service and ruin the viewing experience for subscribers too. The plan is to keep up the pressure so that any mitigation methods are overcome.

“If the illegal service provider detects [a DDoS attack] and changes an IP address and continues the illegal signal distribution from there, he could only do this with a significant time delay, and the process could be used continuously with IP address tracking,” the proposal notes.

“By repeating this action several times, sooner or later, it would be possible within a short period of time that, on the one hand, the consumers of the person carrying out the illegal activity would stop their subscription due to the frequent poor quality and thus the perpetrator would not receive any income.”

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

If the mere suggestion of launching cyberattacks isn’t enough to sound alarm bells, another major red flag is that the potential for collateral damage has not only been considered, but may even be part of the strategy.

For example, disruption of innocent third-party services isn’t seen as a problem since the ensuing chaos would send a message to hosting companies to pick better customers in the future.

“On the other hand, if the service is not provided from [the operator’s] own server but from a rented server, the owner of the server that provides the technical background for the service should also consider it undesirable and terminate its contract with such a customer, and thus the perpetrator would not easily find a server to implement the illegal service,” the telecoms group adds.

It seems highly improbable that MKSZ and partners will receive special permission to carry out what would otherwise be a highly illegal act. However, should some kind of authorization be forthcoming, it might be prudent to consider the possibility of retaliation. Having legal services to sell won’t be much use if nobody can access them.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Wäre die Öffnung von Nord Stream 2 ein Beitrag gegen Verarmung?

Die auch unter Linken umstrittene Forderung von Sahra Wagenknecht erhält in Teilen sozialpolitischer Bündnisse Unterstützung. Doch es gibt auch gute Gründe dagegen.

Die auch unter Linken umstrittene Forderung von Sahra Wagenknecht erhält in Teilen sozialpolitischer Bündnisse Unterstützung. Doch es gibt auch gute Gründe dagegen.

Trotz Russland-Boykott: Uran wird weiter nach Deutschland geliefert

Frankreich ist auf Geschäfte mit dem russischen Staatskonzern Rosatom angewiesen. Russisches Uran kommt aber auch ins niedersächsische Lingen. Das Nachbarland mit seinem großen Atompark bereitet sich auf einen Winter mit Blackouts vor.

Frankreich ist auf Geschäfte mit dem russischen Staatskonzern Rosatom angewiesen. Russisches Uran kommt aber auch ins niedersächsische Lingen. Das Nachbarland mit seinem großen Atompark bereitet sich auf einen Winter mit Blackouts vor.

Steigende Energiepreise: Mehr Pleiten im Einzelhandel erwartet

Zahl der Insolvenzen steigt, auch weil die Leute weniger Geld ausgeben. Von einer Pleitewelle wollen Ökonomen nicht sprechen. Gefährdet sind primär bestimmte Gruppen von Herstellern und Händlern.

Zahl der Insolvenzen steigt, auch weil die Leute weniger Geld ausgeben. Von einer Pleitewelle wollen Ökonomen nicht sprechen. Gefährdet sind primär bestimmte Gruppen von Herstellern und Händlern.

Warum man Wladimir Putin öfter anrufen sollte

Themen des Tages: Was Kanzler Scholz und Russlands Präsident besprachen. Warum Rechte triumphieren. Und welche Gefahren die kommende Krise birgt.

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Breach of software maker used to backdoor as many as 200,000 servers

Hack of FishPig distribution server used to install Rekoobe on customer systems.

A cartoon man runs across a white field of ones and zeroes.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Fishpig, a UK-based maker of e-commerce software used by as many as 200,000 websites, is urging customers to reinstall or update all existing program extensions after discovering a security breach of its distribution server that allowed criminals to surreptitiously backdoor customer systems.

The unknown threat actors used their control of FishPig's systems to carry out a supply chain attack that infected customer systems with Rekoobe, a sophisticated backdoor discovered in June. Rekoobe masquerades as a benign SMTP server and can be activated by covert commands related to handling the startTLS command from an attacker over the Internet. Once activated, Rekoobe provides a reverse shell that allows the threat actor to remotely issue commands to the infected server.

"We are still investigating how the attacker accessed our systems and are not currently sure whether it was via a server exploit or an application exploit," Ben Tideswell, the lead developer at FishPig, wrote in an email. "As for the attack itself, we are quite used to seeing automated exploits of applications and perhaps that is how the attackers initially gained access to our system. Once inside though, they must have taken a manual approach to select where and how to place their exploit."

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US officially added to WHO’s list of poliovirus outbreak countries

The list includes mainly low- and middle-income countries, plus Israel and the UK.

A Pakistani health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a vaccination campaign in Karachi on December 10, 2018. Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

Enlarge / A Pakistani health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a vaccination campaign in Karachi on December 10, 2018. Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic. (credit: Getty | RIZWAN TABASSUM )

The United States, one of the world's richest and most developed countries, has met the World Health organization's criteria to be listed as a country with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.

The US now joins the ranks of around 30 other polio outbreak countries, largely low- and middle-income, including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, and Yemen. Notably, the list includes just two other high-income countries—the United Kingdom and Israel—which have detected the circulation of a poliovirus strain genetically linked to the one spreading in the US.

Specifically, the US met the criteria for WHO's list by documenting a patient with vaccine-derived poliovirus and having at least one environmental sample of vaccine-derived poliovirus. In July, health officials in New York's Rockland County reported a case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated resident who had not recently traveled. Since then, New York officials and the CDC surveilled the spread of the virus in wastewater, finding 57 positive samples from four New York counties and New York City. The dates of the positive samples span from April to a recent sampling in August.

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USA: Wie Waffen, Abtreibung und Trump eine Wahl in Texas dominieren

Im südlichen Bundesstaat, der längst mehr bietet als Cowboyhüte und Öl, wird ein neuer Gouverneur gewählt. Geprägt ist der Wahlkampf von dem, was die Nation im Moment spaltet. Haben die Demokraten erstmals eine Chance?

Im südlichen Bundesstaat, der längst mehr bietet als Cowboyhüte und Öl, wird ein neuer Gouverneur gewählt. Geprägt ist der Wahlkampf von dem, was die Nation im Moment spaltet. Haben die Demokraten erstmals eine Chance?