-- more on -- Hackers cut off SCO Web site

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 21:13:52 -0500
> From: Rick Bradley <rick () rickbradley com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Hackers cut off SCO Web site
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
>
>
> > >This weekend, a denial-of-service attack took down the Web site of The SCO
> > >Group, which is caught in an increasingly acrimonious row with the
> > >open-source community over the company's legal campaign against Linux.
> > >
> > >SCO's Web site was largely out of commission until Monday morning, a
> > >representative of the Lindon, Utah-based Unix and Linux seller said 
> Monday.
> > >Performance measurement statistics from Netcraft indicated that the site
> > >had
> > >been down since Friday night.
> [...]
> > >However, unofficial open-source spokesman Eric Raymond suggested in a
> > >posting Sunday to open-source news Web site NewsForge that the attack was
> > >launched by someone angry at comments from SCO executives criticizing the
> > >open-source community's role in the legal battles over Linux.
>
> Dave,
> What appears to be one of the two premier analysis sources for the SCO
> circus is over at Groklaw [0] (the other happens to be a Wiki), where
> there's been not a small amount of discussion of the missing SCO website
> since sometime last week.
>
> Today one of the Groklaw readers called SCO up and just asked them what
> was going on.  Maybe it occurred to them later to spin it as an attack
> by Linux zealots:
>
>     I called the 1(800)SCO-Unix number. First I talked to someone named
>     Michael in Inside Sales. I thought that was odd and I must have hit
>     the wrong button, but no big deal, maybe he can answer the question
>     anyway. So, Michael tells me that they are working on it but he
>     doesn't know what the problem is.
>
>     "Ok. I'm not satisfied with that answer, so I ask for tech support.
>     'They're working on it,' Michael says, 'they won't have the answer
>     either.'
>
>     "I thank him for his time, and call again. This time I go into
>     customer support. I ask for tech. support. The very nice woman on
>     the phone says she will transfer me to Michael, in Inside Sales.
>
>     "'Wait," I say, 'I want technical support.'
>
>     "'Well, he is the technical support.'
>
>     "'Are you telling me you only have one tech support person?'
>
>     "'Do you have a contract with us?'
>
>     "'No.'
>
>     "'Well,' she says, 'Michael sells the tech support contracts.'
>
>     "'Oh.'
>
>     "'You can try the web.'
>
>     "'Your web site is down. Do you know why?'
>
>     "'Oh, they took it down for some sort of upgrade or update or
>     something. If you give me your number, I can call you when it comes
>     back up.'
>
>     "'No, thank you. I'll just keep checking it. Thanks.'"
>
> [ Of course ESR has been known to go off at the slightest provocation,
> which can't but help SCO push a DDOS story.  I respectfully offer the
> possibility that he has no inside information on the SCO.com outage. ]
>
> Anyway, people have been in contact over the past few days with SCO's
> hosting company, and Groklaw has details on the technical snooping
> people have done.  By all accounts, other than the one the poster sent
> to IP, SCO hasn't been suffering a DDOS.
>
> [0] http://radio.weblogs.com/0120124/
>
> Rick
> --
>  http://www.rickbradley.com    MUPRN: 221
>                        |  both our industries
>    random email haiku  |  the explosive growth that is
>                        |  our within our reach.

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