Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean Rating Board

Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean Rating Board

July 9, 2009

There is a bizarre report from Korea today about a man who authorities say launched a denial of service attack on the nation's game content ratings board.

According to JoongAng Daily, the man, identified only as Choi, age 39, is the CEO of a company that helps game developers with the content rating process. Choi reportedly accepted an advance payment from an unnamed game developer who then complained when the rating process did not progress quickly enough.

Police say that, in order to generate an excuse for the rating delay, Choi purchased a hacking program and launched attacks on the game rating board:

[Choi] made postings on Internet bulletins... saying “MP3 files can be downloaded for free” with a link to a separate Web site. If people clicked on the site, they were directed to a pornographic video. While watching the video, the hacking program Choi had bought from China infected the watchers’ computers with a virus. These so-called zombies computers were then used for a distributed denial-of-service attack...

Choi managed to freeze the Game Rating Board 10 times between March 4 and 22, mobilizing some 7,400 hijacked computers...

Comments

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

Choi, age 39, is the CEO of a company that helps game developers with the content rating process

[Choi] made postings on Internet bulletins... saying “MP3 files can be downloaded for free” with a link to a separate Web site. If people clicked on the site, they were directed to a pornographic video. While watching the video, the hacking program Choi had bought from China infected the watchers’ computers with a virus.

Priceless.  The CEO of a company that assists with content ratings directs children and adults alike to a porn video.  You just can't make this crap up.

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

I'm interested in the legality of it all. What laws exactly did he break? Clearly the fact that he infected other people's computers with viruses is one problem, and potential fraud for wanting to delay the rating process, but is it illegal there to DOS your own website? Many questions like that abound.

-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

It wasn't his own website, he works (or worked) for a company seperate from the rating sbody.

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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

Oh. In that case he's screwed, lol

-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

I don't understand why he would go to these lengths. How would website downtime be an adequate excuse for a lengthy review time?

Unless the ratings board was horribly tied to it's website, which is possible but unlikely.

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

More alarming is the fact that 7400 people actually clicked a link like that.

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

The weakest link in any computer's security is the user.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

No, it's the user's parents.

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

 How dare he How dare he use porn to spread a virus; thats just wrong.  I dont think I will be able to watch porn again without worrying about getting infected I feel so dirty. =P

Re: Company Exec Charged in DOS Hack Attack on Korean ...

I am so very amused by this, not only in that many people actually clicked those links, but because it all happened under the disguise of porn...

Rule number one online: Don't click links advertising any free software. Rule number two: don't complain if you fail to follow rule number one.

Although, I don't get why he'd put in so much effort to cover for why he was delayed... Why not just state that the servers were going through maintenance at that time, or something else just as possible? Why not just tell that unnamed developer that more time was required for ratings, or something else along those lines?

 

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Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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