August 23, 2016 at 14:13Key World Events, Hacktivism and #OpOlympicHacking
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Everyone who monitors Internet attacks will confirm: activists who have adopted hacker methods - hacktivists - who receive approval from certain groups of people whose interests are infringed, can achieve a significant impact on online business. By searching the tags #OpISIS, #OpParis, #OpMonsanto, #OpWhales, #OpKillingBay, #OpKKK and #OpTrump you can easily get an idea of the breadth of interests of the hacktivists. Any event widely covered by the press immediately attracts their attention. The just concluded Olympics was no exception - a large number of scandals riveted the views of millions of fans, intruders, terrorists and hacktivists to the main sporting event. And the recent attacks in Belgium, France and other countries, as well as memorable events at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munichand 1996 in Atlanta , caused a lot of concern about the peaceful conduct of the "yesterday's" Olympics.
Arrests of suspected terrorist attacks at the 2016 Olympics.
In addition to physical threats to people and organizations involved in various events, not just the Olympics, the threat of powerful cyber attacks is growing every year.
In recent years, hacktivists are increasingly organizing their actions, trying to attract public attention to certain issues. There are many groups of hacktivists, one of the largest and most famous is Anonymous . Examples of their operations include:
- #OpNice (Operation “Nice”), in the framework of which they “hunted” the members of the terrorist group responsible for the attack on the French city and killed about a hundred people;
- #OpKKK (Operation “Ku Klux Klan”), in which the names of approximately 1,000 Ku Klux Klan members and affiliates were made public;
- #OpIcarus (Operation “Icarus”) carried out to block banking sites;
- #OpWhales (Operation “Whales”) carried out against Icelandic and Japanese websites in protest of the extermination of whales.
And a few months before the start of the Rio Olympics, Anonymous announced the operation #OpOlympicHacking .
Motivation
The operation #OpOlympicHacking is based on social motivation, as is the case with the operation #OpWorldCup , launched by Anonymous in Brazil during the World Cup 2014. The objectives of this operation were various government organizations, so hacktivists protested against holding the championship in Brazil.
Regarding #OpOlympicHacking, Anonymous posted the following appeal :
“Hi, Rio de Janeiro. We know that many of you understand the harm the Olympics do to this city. The media sells the illusion that the entire population welcomes visiting tourists from all over the world, many of whom are attracted to prostitution and drugs at bargain prices. This false happiness hides the blood shed in the suburbs, mainly in the slums, thanks to countless raids by the police and military under the pretext of a fictitious war. Poverty spans the city, forcing entire families to leave their homes and neighborhoods due to rising rental prices or demolitions by corrupt officials to please construction companies. We have already announced our renunciation of mega-events in the midst of the glaring social inequality in this country. But despite numerous words, calls and protests in the streets (always either under the control of the security forces, or roughly dispersed), the government continues to ignore the voices of its people. Therefore, we will continue our operations in order to reveal to the world numerous cases of arbitrariness on the part of officials, and consequently, enemies of our population. ”
Two videos were also posted that called for joining #OpOlympicHacking:
Operation
Anonymous call themselves an “online meeting” with a “very free and decentralized governance structure that is based on ideas, not directives.” The #OpOlympicHacking operation was coordinated by the Anonymous Brasil cell via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and IRC channels. All these information channels were used to control DDoS attacks against specific targets, as well as to inform about the results of previous attacks and campaigns.
Coordinate operations on Anonymous Brasil's Twitter account.
In addition to coordinating DDoS attacks, these sites are used to discuss and encourage participants to search for vulnerabilities on victim resources.
IRC channel #OpOlympicHacking.
DDoS tool ("opolympddos")
Especially for the #OpOlympicHacking operation, a software tool for conducting DDoS attacks was created.
This tool is known as opolympddos. It is a set of executable files (representing VB .NET and Python scripts converted to executables under Windows), as well as batch files. opolympddos allows everyone to take part in DDoS attacks, for which you need to install TOR and click on a pre-configured button that is tied to a specific target. After that, a DDoS attack is launched at the application level : a stable connection is established and sending HTTP requests with random data and user agents begins.
Other DDoS Tools
There is evidence that other DDoS tools related to #OpOlympicHacking were distributed among hacktivists. Archive containing a set of "hacker tools." This is a set of not very new tools:
| File | Compilation time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous External Attack.exe | 03/22/12 11:54 | Tool for HTTP attacks. 26 antiviruses rate it as “HackerTool” |
| Bull-dosa.exe | 11/11/11 05:59 | DOS tool. 21 antiviruses rate it as “HackerTool” |
| FireFlood.exe | 21/01/12 22:03 | DOS tool. Probably a tool against virtualization. |
| LOIC.exe | 12/13/14 07:09 | DOS tool with user tracking through Google Analytics. |
| LOIC 2013.exe | 05/01/13 07:58 | |
| MacStartx User Attack [tiger] .exe | 10/26/13 06:14 | The tool was proposed on the BR-forum: hxxp: //www.connect-trojan.net/2014/08/macstartx-user-attack-tiger-v461.html |
LOIC tool.
The httpdoser Python script distributed on the #OpOlympicHacking Facebook page.
Goals
Anonymous leaders distributed potential goals via Pastebin posts. In general, the targets of the #OpOlympicHacking operation were organizations associated with scandalous rumors about the organization and holding of the Olympics.
Attacks
Several websites have been subjected to DDoS and DoX attacks. According to Anonymous reports, sites related to national and local government and sports organizations were “laid down”.
In addition, Anonymous claims that they were able to steal important data belonging to a number of organizations and individuals related to the Olympic Games.
Conclusion
The power and frequency of attacks during the Olympics were lower than predicted by RSA experts. Most of the attacks were related to DDoS activity, carried out at a rather low technical level and had limited long-term consequences. At the end of the Olympics, the intensity dropped sharply, and you can expect another surge during the next major international event.
