Question: How come hackers don't attack spammers? Or do they?

[gopunk]

seriously, i think just about everybody gets annoyed by spam... so why don't all these hackers, black or white, put their skills to good use?

 

[pyonir]

YEAH!

 

[Instagib]

You just got yourself a 10 for that.

 

[geekender]

<golf clap>

 

[Aquaman]

True That

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[mrCide]

i don't know, why are spammers so good at hiding their identity?

....

 

[Nitemare]

instead of Hack the planet..Hack the Spammers...i like

 

[joohang]

Your rating is 5.00 even.

 

[gopunk]

hehe, well i'm glad you all like the idea

but it really was a question... is there some kind of thing that is preventing this from happening? i mean i'm really surprised that you don't hear about this kind of stuff happening... dunno... seems like that would be an obvious target...

remember, i would *never* advocate a crime.

 

[dpm]

I've wondered about that as well. After all, spammers are the only people who seem to irritate more than microsoft, and look how many attacks microsoft gets!

 

[joohang]

Maybe those h4X0rs make $$$ off spamming.

 

[spanky]

Originally posted by: joohang
Maybe those h4X0rs make $$$ off spamming.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: joohang
Maybe those h4X0rs make $$$ off spamming.

hmm, that would be sad

i have to think that a good chunk of them have enough morality to not spam though... i mean a lot of them fancy themselves as social avengers of sorts...

 

[308nato]

I'm the least technologically savvy person on this board but I always figured that the spammers employed the hacking little bastages to get the "job" done right.

 

[skace]

Hackers are lazy and go for the obvious target with the obvious weakness.

Besides, would you rather:
Pull the loose screw that sends a warmachine to pieces.
or
Swat at flies all day.

Spammers are a dime a dozen, literally, to attack them would require some sort of massive anti-spam virus.

 

[milagro]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: joohang
Maybe those h4X0rs make $$$ off spamming.

hmm, that would be sad

i have to think that a good chunk of them have enough morality to not spam though... i mean a lot of them fancy themselves as social avengers of sorts...

I think this might be true to some extent...if you've ever been to various underground security sites for crackers/spoofers etc., a lot of them have pr0n coming out the yin yang so that they can collect the advertisings fees to pay for their precious bandwidth, not to mention all the other costs they incure to maintain secrecy. And last time I checked, about 95% of my hotmail spam is pr0n related. While I can't personally pinpoint a direct connection, i get the impression that some l33t groups may be indirectly supporting and/or perpetrating spam...

but still a good idea, if nothing else, get them to reveal some of these guys identities...

 

[hoihtah]

this doesn't happen...
'cause there's no glory in hacking a spam server.

if i hack into say microsoft's web server...
and do it in a good taste...
there's a good chance that i'll get hired by either microsoft... or even better Microsoft's top competitors.

but if i hack into a spammer's server...
i still get spammed like crazy... and since there are so many of them...
it's really like a drop in the ocean.

it's a completely a different story... say... if someone intensionally attacked me.
i would hack for my own avenge.

and as for hacking pron sites...
already... pron sites are probably #1 hacked servers.

they get attacked daily... more than any other servers.

 

[Soybomb]

. i mean a lot of them fancy themselves as social avengers of sorts..

Social avenger in what aspect? As far as fighting for things like the ability to print the decss code, yes. But social avenger like a batman-esque reference I don't think is accurate. Much in the same instance that you don't see armies of hackers trying to use "hack" away terrorism (as though it were possible), they really aren't an attack force or army.

Fighting for rights, yes, but some sort of avenger.....I don't think so really.

As a side note spammers often use unsecured servers to relay their mail through so really there isn't any big operation or company to attack in most cases. One guy sitting in his living room using a piece of software and an unsecured server in asia would be a typical example. If you destroyed his windows installation he would run a restore cd and be back up in an hour so really there isn't anyone to go after.

One of the funniest User Friendly comics though I've seen has Pitr going after some spammers. The comic then cuts to the spammers headquarters where someone is trying to login and you see their screen that reads something like:

spamgod@spambox%: su
error: user "root" does not exist

Its funny in a nerdish way.

 

[StageLeft]

if i hack into say microsoft's web server...
and do it in a good taste...
there's a good chance that i'll get hired by either microsoft... or even better Microsoft's top competitors.

Not likely. More likely you'll find yourself up on charges.