"The confrontation of cyberwarfare techniques, dostically and abroad, is not aid at wreaking havoc, but rather a form of cyber technology deterrent. It’s a clear ssage to the other party that we have the capability to cause you trouble."
"So neither party should go looking for trouble. If you ddle with , I will reciprocate."
"We don’t need to cause substantial damage. No matter how hard we try, we can’t invade their internal networks of critical institutions. Similarly, they can’t invade our internal networks either."
Professor Liu explained this fundantal principle of the international cyber intrusion war to Zhao Yi, advising him on the best course of action.
Zhao Yi understood.
Deterrence!
Let the other party know that we have the capability to cause disruption. Isn’t the invasion program he just designed perfect for this?
The invading program Zhao Yi and Professor Liu completed together can be described as an ’auto-replicating internet worm’. The internet worm can attach itself to specific open ports on target websites.
The requirent for ’specific ports’ is not high. Most sites that can be logged into usually have them open, providing the internet worm with plenty of ’environnts’ to nestle.
The reason why it’s called a worm is that it doesn’t need to invade the website. It sticks to the open port, and every ti the website transmits data to users, the worm replicates itself, adhering to the data and following it into the user’s computer.
The worm can be intercepted by antivirus software and firewalls, but because it enters with the website data, antivirus software and firewalls operating on the browser will alert the user as to whether they want to run the program loaded via the target website. As long as the user chooses to load and run, the worm can operate.
Of course.
If the firewall doesn’t protect the browser, or the antivirus software doesn’t, the program can load freely. As the user visits the website, the worm can directly run.
The worm can attach itself to the target website’s server, but it is certainly restricted. Most of its code is used for camouflage, with only a small proportion being effective. Achieving the effect of an ordinary Trojan is difficult.
Zhao Yi chose to call the operating system’s underlying function, loading text onto the screen using the most primitive code.
There’s still so ti left.
Professor Liu decided to join the invasion action, studying the invasion code carefully.
Zhao Yi, on the other hand, designed a picture using simple code. He ford the shape of an eagle with large blocks of numbers. Because of his aesthetic and graphics abilities, he kept correcting it by referring to simple graphics on the internet, making the eagle appear more robust.
This process is harder than designing code!
When it was past eight o’clock, Zhao Yi opened MSN for a pre-war exchange with the mbers of Squad 19.
The mbers were eager to get started.
The group was filled with ssages from mbers, mocking the leader for his unreliability. They complained that he rarely ca online and didn’t even bother to do so early when the attack ti was approaching.
Zhao Yi, feeling slightly embarrassed, sent an emoticon, and the chatroom instantly quieted down.
He continued to send ssages, "Are you all ready? We can start now. The proxy has been opened. I will send you each a URL. Use the software to detect open ports. Rember, don’t look for vulnerabilities or other information. I just need the IP of the website server and the open ports. Make sure they are matched correctly."
Although Zhou Ming set the ti at nine o’clock, launching an invasion is not like launching a missile. There’s no confird timing.
As long as the proxy IP is open, it can be freely executed.
The mbers still had many questions--
"Captain, are you sure we don’t need other information? Just the IP and port number?"
"I’ve collected so information using other IPs previously. Should I send them directly to you?"
"I found a website managent entrance, but I still haven’t cracked the password! The decryptor is not useful."
"..."
Zhao Yi, seeing the large amount of information, simply asked the idle Xiao Zhicheng to help with the ’chat’. He and Professor Liu were preparing to invade based on the received IP and ports.
The job was simple.
Since the invading program was already prepared, all he needed to do was fill in the target IP and port, and run the program one by one.
If you know how to do it, it can even seem like repetitive physical labor. However, both Zhao Yi and Professor Liu were enthusiastic.
Even Professor Liu found it intriguing.
The allure of being a hacker probably also stems from the human instinct for destruction. Much like the ’heroes’ in so movies, who always possess powerful forces and strong destructive abilities, the achievent of a computer expert managing to launch an intrusion is also a demonstration of technical power and destructive capabilities.
Clearly...
Finding the target website’s IP and corresponding open port is not difficult for the team mbers who possess a certain level of technical skills and nurous software aids.
Zhao Yi assigned about twenty URLs to each person. In less than half an hour, the IPs and open ports of almost all websites were sent over one by one, perfectly matched.
Among these IPs and open ports, eighty percent t the requirents.
Zhao Yi kept running the invading program, hanging the ’internet worm’ onto the specific ports of the websites.
...
California, Oakland.
Old Jim’s son had registered for police training in Oakland. If he passed, he would beco a police intern.
Old Jim was very concerned about his son. When he woke up in the morning, he would open the Oakland Police Departnt’s website to check if there was a new enrollee list in the latest announcents. He had visited the site several tis and could easily find the news column.
This ti was different.
As the website finished loading, a prompt suddenly popped up at the bottom of the browser, "Would you like to load XXX program from the website...?"
"Load it!"
Old Jim chose to load the program without any hesitation since it was from the police departnt’s website. Surely the police departnt’s site couldn’t be virus-ridden, could it?
He soon changed his mind.
After clicking ’Load’, the computer seed to stall for two or three seconds. Suddenly, smack dab in the middle of the screen, the word appeared in bold, blood red--
"Attention!"
"Your computer has been invaded by a Trojan!"
Slowly, the words disappeared.
Sowhere near the middle of the screen, an image of a black hawk appeared. The design was simple, composed purely of digital numbers.
But... that wasn’t the point!
Old Jim stared blankly at the computer screen, then stood up abruptly, furious, "What kind of police departnt is this! They sent a Trojan to my computer!"
anwhile.
Many other users who had visited the police departnt website discovered that they had ’contracted a Trojan.’ They also blad the police departnt and started to make complaint calls.
The Oakland Police Departnt received a flood of complaints, and they imdiately sought expert advice. After finding they couldn’t identify the problem imdiately, they decided to shut down the server.
The sa thing happened to many other websites.
The previous foreign hacker attack targeted dostic public service websites. The Red Heart Alliance also targeted public service websites, which are external networks related to governnt departnts.
Currently, most public service websites are mostly for ’public notifications.’ Very few offer services.
But that does not an there aren’t any.
The Texas Tax Authority had set up a portal for tax refund inquiries on its public service website, allowing taxpayers to check their specific tax refund and paynts from the previous year.
While such a service might be commonplace a decade later, at this ti, it seed rather advanced.
The Texas Tax Authority’s service received positive reviews and drew a lot of traffic, especially during business hours when the number of visits saw a significant spike.
But on this day, the users who visited had nothing positive to say about the Texas Tax Authority. They discovered that their computers had ’contracted’ a Trojan virus from the tax authority’s website!
Of course, they had!
The words ’Your computer has been invaded by a Trojan’ appeared in the middle of their computer screen.
Suddenly.
A barrage of complaints flooded in.
This incident imdiately hit the dia headlines. Because of the dia coverage, even more interested people visited the Texas Tax Authority’s website, making the volu of complaints even greater.
It beca a vicious cycle...
The Texas Tax Authority got so bad news: their tax website had been overwheld by traffic, causing the server to crash. But there was also good news: no new complaints would arise for now.
A problem on one website might just be an isolated incident. But when dozens of websites experience issues simultaneously, given the actions of other teams leading to more websites getting hacked and invaded, the problem beca glaringly clear.
Reports quickly surfaced--
"Our public service websites have been hacked!"
"Dozens, even hundreds of websites had been infected with a terrifying Trojan virus which could infiltrate users’ computers!"
"This thod is simply too terrifying!"
"..."
The entire internet was in shock!
Although many websites were attacked and compromised, the ’Hawking’ by Zhao Yi was the most evident. This was because the ’Hawk’ had infiltrated the user level via the website, causing the attacked website departnts to be overwheld by the angry public.
The damages inflicted by other squads were only at the website level.
So, ’hanging the hawk’ beca a symbol of invasion. All dia reports revolved around the ’hawk’ image on the computer, making the damages inflicted by other squads seem trivial.
Although the ’Hawk’ did not carry Trojans or viruses, it frightened users into thinking their computers were infected.
This fear was more powerful than actual Trojans or viruses.
The departnts of the ’hacked’ websites couldn’t identify the problem in the short term. To alleviate the pressure from the public, they could only choose to temporarily shut down the servers.
The foreign dia covering the incident even gave the invasion program a na - ’Cyber Hawk Virus’. The descriptions for the virus were always ’terrifying’, ’temporarily unstoppable’, and ’attacked sites could only respond by shutting down their servers’.
’Cyber Hawk Virus’ quickly beca synonymous with ’terror’.
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