

The 'Fly' Has Been Swatted - zerny
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/06/the-fly-has-been-swatted/

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rdtsc
The thing here that what was being exploited is irrationality of the system
that uses these made up "Wars On <X>". Whatever this <X> is, it will always be
boon for psychopaths and will be a exploited.

War on Terrorism -- send tips about so and so is building bombs or talking
about jihad.

War on Drugs -- plant or send someone a drug package and notify police. One
worse, SWAT them. With good luck they will be shot by the cops.

War on Kids via Zero Tolerance -- plant a piece of toast looking like a gun in
someone's bag and tell a teacher.

War on Electronic Crime (Hacking) -- plant a DoS tool pointed to a .mil
website on enemy's machine or network.

The list goes on. Of course in this case we have a good ending so that is
encouraging. But the scary part is not that someone would wish all this harm
to another person and come up with scheme like this, but that knowing how
prosecution works, how Wars On <X> work, this seems like a very close call. It
is the lack of faith in justice and the system to act rationally that is
scary. Maybe the neighbor who is building bombs got a visit from FBI and they
couldn't charge him. But they visited his work. Scared his kids. And
ultimately put him on a watch list so from then on they get harassed every
time they travel.

~~~
slapshot
But one of the most effective tactics of The Fly was a traditional SWATting
based on a false phone call that Kreb's wife had been murdered in the house.
13 police officers showed up, heavily armed, because of the War on What?
Murder? Domestic Violence?

All of this long predates any War on ____. Your examples could just as easily
be "send tips that so and so plans to rob a bank." There's no "War on Bank
Robbers" but it'd be no less effective.

~~~
pyre
You're missing a couple of points:

\- The militarization of local police forces is largely thanks to the War on
Drugs.

\- The effects of a "SWATing" are amplified by the militarization of the
police. If, for example, someone called in a murder in the 1950's, would the
police come in guns-blazing shooting anything, and everything in their path,
dropping flashbang grenades on sleeping children?

\- Had the package of drugs arrived without Krebs being 'in on it,' then he
would be in violation of the law because he possessed an illegal substance.
The War on Drugs has given us the idea that merely possessing something is
enough to get you jail time. This allows malicious actors to arrange for an
illegal item to find its way into your possession... The police and
prosecution hear "I was set up!" a lot. I'm sure they wouldn't pay much
attention to just another cry of innocence (though being a white male in good
social standing probably increases the odds).

~~~
slapshot
> The War on Drugs has given us the idea that merely possessing something is
> enough to get you jail time.

Except that's not true either. In many places possession of burglary tools is
a crime by itself. I'm not saying it's a good law, but it's certainly law.
Same for any possession of child pornography, knowing possession of stolen
property, any possession of a long list of EPA-banned toxic chemicals, any
possession of unregistered firearms, any possession of modified firearms, etc
etc etc.

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comex
> According to a trusted source in the security community, that email account
> [belonging to 'Fly'] was somehow compromised last year.

Right... I'm sure it was just a source who themselves got the information
legally secondhand, and that Krebs had nothing to do with it. ;)

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kyrra
It's not clear in the post; why was Krebs targeted by this criminal?

~~~
webkike
It may simply be because Krebs has a history of unveiling important members of
the cyber crime business.

~~~
jacquesm
Or it may simply be that 'owning' Krebs has the effect of boosting some stupid
kids' standing.

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ragsagar
This link is blocked in UAE. :-\

~~~
w-ll
How about [http://krebsonsecurity.com.nyud.net/2014/06/the-fly-has-
been...](http://krebsonsecurity.com.nyud.net/2014/06/the-fly-has-been-
swatted/)

