back to article Police arrest suspect in BIGGEST DDoS ATTACK IN HISTORY

The Dutch police have confirmed the arrest of man suspected of taking part in a massive DDoS attack against the anti-spam group Spamhaus back in March. The 35 year-old man is a Dutch national but was arrested at his home in Barcelona under a European arrest warrant, the Netherlands National Prosecution Office told the BBC. His …

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  1. asdf

    bets

    My guess is there is at least one medium size dumbass legitimate company ignorantly relying on at least one of Cyberbunker's services. We will get to see who more than likely once the authorities shut him down.

    1. Esskay
      Joke

      Re: bets

      But they're based of out an old soviet nuclear bunker.

      A *nuclear* *bunker*.

      That makes my company's data safe, right?

      ...right?

      1. rvt
        Headmaster

        Re: bets

        I believe it was the nato that did build it in 1955.

      2. Pet Peeve
        Stop

        Re: bets

        No, they're NOT housed in the bunker, in fact the real owner of the bunker was considering suing cyberbunker to get them to stop using the image.

        I think Sven owned it for a while, but not for a long time, and not to house servers.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: bets

          Yep, according to BunkerInfra, the company that took over the bunker in 2010, Cyberbunker moved out after a fire in 2002.

          A press release (in Dutch) with some interesting facts about the bunker: http://www.bunkerinfra.com/press/PERSBERICHT_Cyberbunker_niet_in_Kloetingse_bunker_29maart2013.pdf

        2. Dom 3

          Location

          "As of 2013 the physical location of CyberBunker is unknown." sez Wikipedia. "Wot, completely unknown?" thinks I, "cobblers to that". Assuming that cyberbunker.com is self-hosted, we find it in.... London:

          4 tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.174.18) 38.563 ms 41.721 ms 43.102 ms

          5 195.66.225.179 (195.66.225.179) 47.453 ms 48.694 ms 50.215 ms

          6 108.162.197.100 (108.162.197.100) 51.692 ms 15.358 ms 14.103 ms

  2. Smelly Socks
    Mushroom

    I don't think we got the hint

    i think the headline should have been in bold and not just capital letters. Just to make sure everyone knew that this was like really important, know what I mean? And italics. Maybe underline also. Hey, does your CMS support <blink>?

    -ss

    1. DF118

      Re: I don't think we got the hint

      I think the way to read El Reg's partially bolded headlines is to imagine the bold text not on your screen, but on the cover of an issue of one of the more shrill right-wing tabloids. Once you have done this you will realise that, as usual, it is done with tongue firmly in cheek.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: I don't think we got the hint

        > right-wing tabloids

        LEFT-WING TABLOIDS!

    2. Blitterbug
      Devil

      Re: I don't think we got the hint

      Don't come here often, I'm guessing..?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another one bites the dick

    They can run, but they can't hide. I hope they throw the book at this scumbag.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC

      I wouldn't get my hopes up. In fact; I think its for a well known reason why this happened to be a Dutchie who appeared a bit more in the spotlight. Because chances are high he'll get away with community service, or even less.

      You see; our district attorneys (I believe that's the right verb, or I've been watching too much Law & Order) don't exactly hold a good reputation on this matter. Only last week did we get the news how an arrested and convicted rapist saw the jail time which was demanded by the DA cut almost in half because that same DA had neglected the whole proceedings for almost 10 years. Judge ordered that the 'suspect' didn't have to suffer for the incompetence of the DA office.

      That's about the situation here, so I really wouldn't get my hopes up that he has a rough time ahead.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    True?

    "His computers and a mobile phone have been seized and he will be extradited to the Netherlands on charges of aiding "unprecedentedly serious attacks on the non-profit organization Spamhaus."

    Is "aiding 'unprecedentedly serious attacks on the non-profit organization Spamhaus.'" an actual charge there?

    1. Anonymous Dutch Coward
      Coat

      Re: True?

      If it it's not in the law books, we have trained typists over here, so just a matter of hours ;)

  5. Zmodem

    I mailbombed a few spam reply addresses, alot of american spam has unsubscribe at the bottom with a -40px font link that appears 30s later, and unsubscribe works

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Go

      bollocks

      Replying to a spam email (especially the unsubscribe list) will only see you deluged with a new flood of spam, as your account is now recognised as active.

      Best thing to do is set your blocking rules so that anything that carries certain words in the text is filed directly to the garbage bin. Set up right and you will rarely see a new spam message.

      Thats all you can do for now, at least until either a) stupid people who reply to spam are removed from the internet (unlikely - i mean who will watch all of the cat videos?), b) it becomes legal to castrate the spammers and hang them from the nearest light pole (again unlikely - lousy democrats!)...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: bollocks

        Agree that you should never, ever confirm your email address to a spammer or a scammer. Sadly, there are morons out there who send legitimate emails with subject or text that will stop most working filters. How do you get them to get a clue - if they're the client or the boss?

      2. Zmodem

        Re: bollocks

        if its sent from an american server, then they had new laws introduced 5 or 6 years ago, and you can just unsubscribe from them, or the hoster will be fined $100k`s

        i dont reply to none, i mailbomb them 20,000 of the same "f you" to start off with

        1. Jess--

          Re: bollocks

          "IF it's sent from an american server"

          there just happen to be hundreds of thousands of servers outside the US you know,

          even if it is an american server and you unsubscribe then congratulations you removed yourself from one list "the does this email address get read list" and got yourself added to 20 more "lets sell these confirmed active email addresses" litst

          1. Zmodem

            Re: bollocks

            most advertising spam is american, and advertises proper companies

            mailbombing isnt spam when they have a yahoo.jp account for a solicitors in london england

            1. jake Silver badge

              Re: bollocks

              "most advertising spam is american, and advertises proper companies"

              Total, utter and complete bullshit. Obviously, you've never run a major email system. (Hint: Managing to get Sendmail to work on your Ubuntu box doesn't count as "major". Nor does your local highschool's mail system.)

              "mailbombing isnt spam when they have a yahoo.jp account for a solicitors in london england"

              No, mailbombing is abuse of system resources. That's why it's against the terms of service of the mail provider you are using. That's breach of contract, and you will have your account pulled if anyone reports you for bombing the wrong address.

              As a side note, do you really believe that you can actually figure out the proper email address to "bomb" from a typical spam's headers? If so, you are more naive than your lack of CAPS and punctuation indicates. If it's not against the terms of service, myself and many others are probably already blocking you from even seeing our networks ... Enjoy living in your Balkan state :-)

              1. Zmodem

                Re: bollocks

                it not bullshit, try unsubscribing from them, with electronic cigerettes, and eharmony and all the other worthless stuff that ends up in your box

                you will stop getting all of them, until you log back into an old forum account you have`nt used for 6 months

                1. Zmodem

                  Re: bollocks

                  if your mail address does`nt exist, then the sender would just get a mailer-deamon fail message in their box after a day or too

                  1. jake Silver badge

                    @Zmodem (was: Re: bollocks)

                    Stop embarrassing yourself. You clearly have no clue as to what you are typing about.

        2. Wibble
          Facepalm

          Re: bollocks

          > i dont reply to none, i mailbomb them 20,000 of the same "f you" to start off with

          Maybe this is one of those 'merkin things we Europeans will never understand, like giving guns to everyone will reduce gun crime.

          Someone sending you spam means you spam them back 20,000 times over... Nope, still doesn't make sense. Especially as you run the risk of being flagged as a spammer, hence you then get your outbound email blocked, or worse still your ISP gets blocked (mine will then fine me if I cause them to be blocked).

          1. jake Silver badge

            @Wibble (was: Re: bollocks)

            "Maybe this is one of those 'merkin things we Europeans will never understand, like giving guns to everyone will reduce gun crime."

            You mean like all the gun-crime in Switzerland?

        3. Pet Peeve
          Mushroom

          Re: bollocks

          "the new law". You mean can-spam, the law that is more about what ISN'T spam than what is? Feh.

          There is precious little "American spam", as in spam sent from the US, that would be illegal under can-spam. As lame as the law is though, most spammers only pretent to comply with it anyway. They send from other countries, change names every other week, host via botnets, anything but actually making an honest living.

          If you really think sending email to an unsubscribe link will do anything but put your email on a resell list, you're a fool. And if you don't believe that and wrote the tripe you did anyway, you're either a troll or a spammer yourself. Begone.

          1. Zmodem

            Re: bollocks

            i dont know what law, but a few years ago there was aload of stuff on the news and all around about spam for america and european union,

            america had new laws introduced, the european union just faded away, if the hoster blocks the trace back to the users real home//work address, then the hoster gets the fine, or something along the lines

            so now, you can just unsubscribe from all american advertising spam

  6. BornToWin

    As ye sow...

    Prison will make a real or dead man out of him.

    1. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: As ye sow...

      You seriously think this bloke is going to be treated like a serious sexual offender? Remember, all he did was slow down some computers - most people don't even know it happened. He might get a short custodial sentence, but don't bank on it (though I'm not sure what the political situation is in the Netherlands regarding computer crime). If he does, he'll be treated as an oddity with skills that other criminals can use - this may not have the outcome you seem to think he deserves.

  7. Dazed and Confused
    Trollface

    what's the betting

    that the plane taking him from Spain back to Holland accidentally stops to refuel in Washington DC?

  8. Mpeler
    Black Helicopters

    With a drone

    you're never alone....

  9. John Savard

    What Concerns Me

    If a conviction is achieved, will all of those who have incurred out of pocket expenses as a result of this unlawful activity be able to recover their expenses from him?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Treble damages and prison time is due

    Treble damages for all costs associated with the DDoS, investigation, prosecution and incarceration plus 10 years in the slammer should be the minimum he gets.

    1. Gordon Pryra

      Re: Treble damages and prison time is due

      because thats the value of his crime....

      Start giving that to people who actually hurt people first. Maybe give that 10 year sentence for assault/rape/fraud etc

      At which point you can start to get your legal vengeance on someone who abuses holes in crap computer systems to hurt people who play with crap computer systems.

      Really, who gives a monkeys about this? What affect did people really see? And if the affect was a slowdown or even loss of some services for a few hours, is financial loss to a company really worth more to our society than the pain of victims who get beaten up, raped or they lifes savings stolen

      money > all else?

      1. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: Treble damages and prison time is due

        Well said, Gordon. The lack of perspective shown when this topic comes up never fails to make me wonder what some people's priorities are.

      2. BornToWin

        Re: Treble damages and prison time is due

        You're confused...about many things including DDoS. It can cost millions to fix the problems, investigate the perps, locate and seize the perps, develop the court case and prosecute the perps, convict and incarcerate the perps - after multiple appeals. Not only does the company and it's customers sustain losses, so do tax payers.

        Punishment is not an exchange of value or compensation for the financial loss. If you rob a bank and then give the money back when you are caught, you still go to prison for 7-10 years in most locals. Cyber crimes should be treated no differently. Japan has the correct approach with mandatory prison sentences and fines for pirates, hackers and facilitators of piracy. That approach needs to be adopted world wide for all cyber crimes.

  11. Stephen Gray

    Gitmo anyone?

    He's Dutch so he'll love being in an orange jumpsuit.

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