WMF Attacks on British Parliament

[iago]

http://news.com.com/British+parliament+attacked+using+WMF+exploit/2100-7349_3-6029691.html?tag=nefd.top

The British Parliament was attacked late last year by hackers who tried to
exploit a recent serious Microsoft Windows flaw, security experts confirmed
on Friday.

MessageLabs, the e-mail-filtering provider for the U.K. government, told
ZDNet UK that targeted e-mails were sent to various individuals within
government departments in an attempt to take control of their computers. The
e-mails harbored an exploit for the Windows Meta File vulnerability.

The attack occurred over the Christmas period and came from China, said Mark
Toshack, manager of antivirus operations at MessageLabs, who added that the
e-mails were intercepted before they reached the government's systems.

"The attack definitely came from China--we know that because we log the IP
addresses. The U.K. Government was targeted but none (of the e-mails) got
through. No one was affected. They were attacked, but they (the government)
didn't know about it until we told them," Toshack said.

...
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[Sidoh]

ROFL!!!  I'm so going to give Lihao shit tomorrow (he's the exchange student from China).

[iago]

Well, China is the source for most online attacks.  I think people there are computer-idiots (or something), so they get exploited and become open proxies that attacks go through. 

[Sidoh]

Well, China is the source for most online attacks.  I think people there are computer-idiots (or something), so they get exploited and become open proxies that attacks go through. 

It could be that they have a lot of technology relative to the rest of the world, too.  Think about their population and also how technologically advanced they are.  Lihao brought a camera that was 7 megapixels.  That's about up to par with today's top-of-the-line hobbiest (not professional; his is a hobbiest camera too) digital cameras on the market in the US.  He said he has had it for about two years now.

Given those two facts, you're a lot more likely to find an insecure node in a WAN in China than you are in the US or Canada.

[Blaze]

I think they setup those proxies, because they don't care. 

[Sidoh]

I think they setup those proxies, because they don't care. 

Or don't know how to care or that they should care.  I think my hypothesis is more correct.

[Newby]

Well, China is the source for most online attacks.  I think people there are computer-idiots (or something), so they get exploited and become open proxies that attacks go through. 

When I was @ M$ HQ, there was this poster with regions with most copies of illicit copies of Windows. China looked like a bright red dot.

So, since they can never patch their systems, they get infected easily.

[Sidoh]

When I was @ M$ HQ, there was this poster with regions with most copies of illicit copies of Windows. China looked like a bright red dot.

So, since they can never patch their systems, they get infected easily.

That's pretty funny.  What'd you go to the Microsoft Headquarters for?

[Warrior]

Linux Missionary trip.

[Ergot]

Hahaha. Silly Chinese.

[Blaze]

Linux Missionary trip.
[/quote

Hah, my Engineering teacher said they based Vista off of Unix?  I'm not going to use it so *shrug*.

[Sidoh]

Hah, my Engineering teacher said they based Vista off of Unix?  I'm not going to use it so *shrug*.

False... we had an argument about that on IRC yesterday.  Newby didn't even go as far as to claim it was based on UNIX, but he did say there was a UNIX subsystem.  TehUser asked for documentation and Newby was unable to find anything supporting his claim directly.

Vista is not based on UNIX.  Tell your engineering teacher he's wrong!

[iago]

When I was @ M$ HQ, there was this poster with regions with most copies of illicit copies of Windows. China looked like a bright red dot.

So, since they can never patch their systems, they get infected easily.

You can still download security patches with illegal copies of Windows. 

False... we had an argument about that on IRC yesterday.  Newby didn't even go as far as to claim it was based on UNIX, but he did say there was a UNIX subsystem.  TehUser asked for documentation and Newby was unable to find anything supporting his claim directly.

Vista is not based on UNIX.  Tell your engineering teacher he's wrong!

It has a lot of UNIX-style elements, I'm told. 

In any case, TehUser was on IRC?  I thought he went away this week :-/

[Blaze]

By based, I'm sure he didn't mean code wise, he probably ment based on how they do things... but I don't know much about this so I'll drop the argument.

Yes, my other versions of windows are less then legit and they're up to date on everything.

[deadly7]

Well, I read on the M$ website that Vista will incorporate a lot of things Linux does, of course those were rumors released like, last spring.