barry@ames-lm.UUCP (06/01/84)
[*************=8>:) (snort)]
I heard recently that the system-manglers are even attacking
the BBS's! Apparently a number of the local BBS's have been brought down
intentionally by people calling in. Are there any sysops out there who
have encountered this, or heard about it?
Kenn Barry
NASA-Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA
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Electric Avenue: {dual,hao,menlo70,hplabs}!ames-lm!barrymerlyn@sequent.UUCP (06/05/84)
> From: barry@ames-lm.UUCP > Message-ID: <292@ames-lm.UUCP> > Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 00:09:45 PDT > > I heard recently that the system-manglers are even attacking > the BBS's! Apparently a number of the local BBS's have been brought down > intentionally by people calling in. Are there any sysops out there who > have encountered this, or heard about it? My brother manages the Portland [Oregon] Atari Club BBS {(503)245-9405}. He's had lots of trouble lately with a guy who calls himself "Boy George". "BG" logs in to the PACBBS, giving false login information (sometimes obscene), and attempts to tie up the BBS for long periods of time and send useless (and sometimes obscene) messages to the SYSOP. I've electronically chatted with this guy for a good couplea hours now (although I still don't know who he is), and it appears that he is just today's electronic equivalent of the guys with their spray paint cans doing vandalism to the bridges and walls. He's apparently been kicked off from other Portland-area systems, and has done no specific damage, other than the loss of a lot of access time for our single-user BBS. He hasn't managed to bring the BBS down (although we've had a couple people do that by finding software bugs). Yes, given a media, some people will find means, motive, and opportunity to abuse it. That's life. -- A particularly personal and original observation from the thought-stream of Randal L. ("not a BBS") Schwartz, esq. (merlyn@sequent.UUCP) (Official Legendary Sorcerer of the 1984 Summer Olympics) Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. (503)626-5700 (sequent = 1/quosine) UUCP: {decwrl,ogcvax,pur-ee,rocks34,shell,unisoft,vax135,verdix}!sequent!merlyn
bob@islenet.UUCP (06/08/84)
Kenn Barry asks, > I heard recently that the system-manglers are even attacking >the BBS's! Apparently a number of the local BBS's have been brought down >intentionally by people calling in. Are there any sysops out there who >have encountered this, or heard about it? Yes. The BBS's out here regularly undergo attacks by self-styled "systems crashers". If there are any loopholes in the BBS software that allow the system to be brought down, they will be found. Passwords easily broken, are. Control characters that might create a program interrupt or hang the modem are regularly tried. Stable systems without passwords (Conference Tree clones and some of the RBBS systems) tend to get a surprising amount of pointless obscene messages posted. Messages posting various cracking techniques and phone numbers show up regularly. It takes a considerable amount of time and patience on the part their SYSOPs to keep this stuff pruned off. All sorts of subterfuges and phoney names are tried to obtain passwords. Out of the 1000 or so people out here who use the public BBS's, it seems 1% to 2% of them enjoy trying to mangle systems. -- Bob Cunningham ..{dual,ihnp4,uhpgvax,vortex}!islenet!bob Honolulu, Hawaii