Since the other party didn't mention compensation, Blue Baby felt she couldn't be so unfair, so she quickly asked, "What about compensation? We can't just take what you've worked so hard to research for free. Please name your price."
Working so hard? Chen Xu felt that if saying a few words was too much work, then the world would be full of people who were working themselves to death. The saying goes, "You don't feel the pain when it's not your own money," and Chen Xu truly felt no pain at all. So, he wrote righteously in the chat box: "Contributing to the country is my duty and honor; there's no need to mention compensation."
Upon seeing this sentence, Blue Baby paused on the keyboard, then erased the line she had just typed with a wry smile: "I will discuss it with my superiors and try to get you a reasonable price, which is expected to be no less than 20 million..."
If Chen Xu knew that twenty million, or even more, had vanished because of his own words, he'd probably be so frustrated he'd want to bang his head against the wall! That's the price of being arrogant! But thankfully, not knowing anything is a kind of happiness...
Snake has finally launched another attack, this time using the normal method of requesting server connections.
A normal request to connect to the server is a tactic used by hackers to disguise themselves. In other words, after a scan, Snake's team found no exploitable vulnerabilities on the server and, unable to resolve the situation quickly, resorted to this method... a method that is almost shameless.
Why is this commonly used method considered shameless?
As mentioned before, a firewall is just a program, and programs must follow certain rules. This normal method of requesting a server connection might not seem like much to ordinary hackers, because under the supervision of a highly skilled administrator, the attacker's intentions can be accurately detected and blocked through data flow analysis.
The problem is that SMMH previously stated that he only uses firewalls for defense, and neither he nor anyone else will take action! Therefore, this method can be described as shameless. As long as they can deceive the server with fake data packets, they can successfully infiltrate the server.
This is what I mentioned before, similar to a TCP/IP defect, not a vulnerability, but a flaw.
Website servers must be open to communication with people; otherwise, even the world's top experts would not be able to hack into a server with its network cable disconnected. This is basic common sense.
Open communication, due to the exchange of data, inevitably leads to this flaw. The website Snake created previously used a chaotic encryption algorithm on its homepage, preventing anyone from connecting to the site and thus making it impossible to attack using this method. Therefore, when it was discovered that Snake was using this method, almost everyone cursed, "Shameless!"
Blue Baby quickly typed in the chat box: "The other party is now using the normal request mode to connect. Aren't you worried at all?"
The dialog box quickly appeared: "What are you worried about?"
That statement is absolutely infuriating! Blue Baby felt that either the other person was incredibly confident in their skills, or they were a complete novice in electronic games! Of course, she knew it definitely wasn't the latter…
Super-duper Dianbai was also puzzled at this point, because he really didn't understand the meaning of that sentence...
Snake sends requests using registered accounts, which is something the server simply cannot refuse... If a firewall can't even function properly, what kind of firewall is it?!
Snake's team was furious after receiving and analyzing the server's operational status. The data showed at least tens of thousands of IPs were currently connecting to the server, meaning hackers worldwide were monitoring the forum's activity, with many freely registering accounts and posting questions. Yet their recent DDoS flood attack hadn't caused the slightest disruption to the server.
So Snake's people quickly came up with a solution... Since you're blocking all my DDoS flood attack messages, how about I use a normal connection?
At this point, a brief introduction is necessary.
A DDoS attack involves using many compromised computers to send requests to a server simultaneously. However, these requests are fake. It's like one person greeting another by extending their hand to shake hands. When the server sees the other person extending their hand, it politely extends its hand in return. But then the person who initially extended their hand withdraws it and leaves.
With so many hands reaching out like this, the server's operation will naturally slow down. But the problem is that the other party's firewall can easily see that your reach is just to tease me, so I won't accept it. Moreover, it can easily distinguish among thousands of hands which hand is genuinely trying to shake hands (i.e., registering a forum account, posting, etc.) and which hand is maliciously teasing me.
But now Snake has changed its approach. They use a method where they extend ten thousand hands to shake hands with you, and each person shakes their hand forcefully twice, trying to cripple you with their handshake!
This attack method turns the virtual into the real! Unless your server completely refuses handshakes, taking them one by one will exhaust you to the point of collapse!
This method is truly shameless.
Snake's team wrote a keygen and started frantically registering accounts... Even with CAPTCHAs, it didn't matter, because even if the CAPTCHA was incorrect, the server would still respond: "Sorry, your CAPTCHA is incorrect." This way, with over ten thousand accounts registering and attacking simultaneously, the server's efficiency would definitely decrease, giving them an opportunity to exploit the system!
Seeing the other party use such methods, everyone monitoring the data couldn't help but feel their hearts leap into their throats. This method was despicable, but it was indeed effective! Moreover, it was a problem that no firewall could currently prevent... To give an example, the pressure a server can withstand is limited. Just like how readers often find that Qidian (a Chinese online literature platform) is experiencing glitches, a significant reason is that there are too many users, causing the server to be overloaded and unable to handle the pressure, resulting in slow loading or even the inability to open the webpage at all!
This is a blatant, overt strategy, not a conspiracy! An overt strategy means that even if you understand the other party's plan, you cannot stop it—that's what it means.
At this point, some people couldn't help but say, "SMMH, hurry up and take action! The other party is too shameless!"
Someone immediately shouted in the chat room that everyone should stop posting on the forum and reduce the forum's traffic.
Some people also condemned Snake for being shameless, because the server used on their website must be the best and most powerful, capable of withstanding very strong DDoS attacks. However, SMMH just randomly picked a website with a server from the Red Hacker Alliance, which is not considered powerful. Using such methods is simply too shameless.
But as I said before, there is no fairness in the hacker war.
However, Blue Baby and the other administrators quickly discovered in the backend that although the other party submitted tens of thousands of account registration requests in just a few minutes, the server's memory and CPU consumption not only did not increase, but actually decreased slightly!
What's going on?!
The other party was clearly using an open strategy and had already communicated with the server. However, with tens of thousands of messages being sent at the same time, the server would have crashed long ago under normal circumstances, but now it seems that nothing is happening.
"Let him be strong, the breeze still caresses the mountain; let him be arrogant, the bright moon still shines over the great river."
Just as everyone was marveling, a line appeared below the declaration "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name" on the homepage of the Red Hacker Alliance website.
This is a passage from the Nine Yang Divine Skill, a peerless martial art in Jin Yong's novel "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber". It means that no matter how strong you are, I am like a gentle breeze blowing across the hills and the bright moon reflecting on the river. "He may be ruthless and domineering, but I have enough true qi."
This passage was typed by Chen Xu. Although it's meant to be pretentious, it's actually a true reflection of this data exchange model independently developed by Chinese people, and it's also the first sentence programmers use when introducing themselves.
This data exchange model differs from the flawed TCP/IP protocol of today. Much of the data processing is done on the server, which can easily cause the server to crash due to excessive pressure.
For example, before the advent of SWF, or Flash embedded video, many video websites in China almost went bankrupt because of the huge investment in servers. This was because watching videos online put a lot of pressure on the servers. If many people watched a movie at the same time, the server would really crash.
Modern video websites all use the P2P model, which means that while viewers are watching movies online and downloading and saving the movies to temporary files, the upload process is also ongoing. This greatly reduces the pressure on the server and distributes the load across users' computers and networks.
And that's the processing model.
Instead of placing all the computation on the server, it distributed the data across each user's computer. Snake used tens of thousands of compromised computers to register accounts. When the server felt overloaded, it would distribute the data to each computer for independent processing. So, Snake added tens of thousands of accounts to the Red Hacker Alliance forum for nothing, but it didn't have any effect on them at all.
When the Snake team discovered this, they were filled with admiration, but also incredibly frustrated.
If this method doesn't work, then what else can we do?!
It's not that Snake only has this much technology, but rather that hacker attacks and defenses are limited to the above methods: deceiving servers, finding vulnerabilities, or simply overwhelming the opponent with equipment and traffic!
If none of the above methods work, then we have no choice but to resort to the last resort... a virus.
To be honest, I really have lost confidence.
Even the Beacon Virus was cracked by this guy, so what use are these things they have?
Half the time has already passed, so we have to give it a try, whether it works or not.
After a brief discussion, Snake finally decided to release a virus he had been researching for a long time... named "Terminator".
This virus may not be as stealthy as the Beacon virus, but its destructiveness and transmissibility are far greater. Once a computer or server is infected, the virus will relentlessly attack third parties connected to the network and create a large amount of junk data on the computer, even destroying existing data.
It can be said that this virus was created for destruction; it is a virus belonging to hackers, and one that is despised by hackers!
Snake spread the virus rapidly, employing a method similar to the Seven Injury Fist, harming themselves before harming others! They actually implanted the virus into tens of thousands of zombie computers under their control and detonated it, causing the "Terminator" virus to erupt wildly on the internet!
"Damn! Snake's gone mad?!" Blue Baby was the first to discover this insanely attacking virus, and she cursed in anger. She then messaged SMMH: "Snake's people have used a highly aggressive virus to attack the servers. This virus is extremely infectious and aggressive, and many computers are already infected! I can't believe they've gone this far?!"
At this moment, Chen Xu, who was sitting in front of the computer, also received Xiao Min's report: "A virus called 'Terminator' has been discovered. This virus has a strong ability to infect and will delete the data on the user's computer. It is one of the most malicious viruses in the early 21st century. The data on the computer of the infected user will be completely wiped out."
"Damn it!" Chen Xu was furious now, really furious.
Although he was new to the internet, after reading the introduction, he understood the dangers of this virus. Once it broke out, how many people would be devastated by their lost computers? Not to mention… his own computer contained dozens of gigabytes of pornographic videos that he had painstakingly collected! Some of them were even rare and out of print! If he lost them, who would he cry to?!
Soon, people in the chat room were crying out that they had been infected and all their data was lost. Others reported that many members who were browsing the Red Hacker Alliance homepage and following the battle were also infected. The virus was like a mad dog; unable to penetrate firewalls, it relentlessly sought loopholes to spread, reaching many computers.
Chen Xu is really infamous now. To use such methods for the sake of reputation, don't the people at Snake know the consequences of spreading the virus?!
The following line suddenly appeared on the homepage of the Red Hacker Alliance:
“Snake, I didn’t expect you to resort to such extreme measures. It seems I was wrong.”
For hackers like you who have already fallen so far, possessing such powerful skills is a huge mistake and a tragedy for the computer industry.
It seems you haven't cherished the opportunity I gave you, and you've made one mistake after another.
Your past actions, and your current spread of this malicious virus, have made it impossible for the world to forgive you.
Perhaps I myself do not have the power to judge you, but the judicial system does. Your actions are enough to make you spend the rest of your lives in prison in remorse and atonement.
This statement appeared quite out of the blue, but the people of Snake suddenly had a bad feeling.
The next second, a list appeared on the webpage:
Snake's members include:
Dr. Cameron, a senior engineer at Microsoft, was the founder of Snake…
Chapter 29 Military Attitude
Snake's list is as follows:
Dr. Cameron, a senior engineer at Microsoft, was the founder of Snake. He began building Snake in 1999 and used his position to steal confidential company documents for his own hacking purposes. On March 25, 2003, he orchestrated the Seattle car crashes, killing three FBI agents who were investigating Snake.
Dr. Danny, a senior engineer at Microsoft, was also involved in the murders of three FBI agents.
Dr. Sarat, a senior administrator at Dell...
Dr. Mittle, Senior Engineer at Intel Corporation…
Dr. Syme, Senior Engineer at Cisco Systems…
Dr. Hamid, Senior Engineer at Lucent Technologies…
...
...
The list of seventeen people terrified the Snake members. What they were most proud of was that even members of the FBI couldn't know their true identities!
But the other party somehow managed to expose their identities and all the things they had done without them even realizing it!
Of course, no one doubted that Chen Xu was simply reciting from Xiao Min's information. Everyone, including Snake's people, believed that their data was leaked because the other party had secretly performed a reverse hack on them, thereby obtaining their computer's real IP address and investigating the leak!
Is it possible for someone to hack into the Snake members' computers without alerting them?
If this had been said a few hours ago, the Snake team would have laughed and called it idiot—how could such technology exist? But now, they don't think so.
That firewall had completely shattered Snake's confidence. Although it was just a tool, it made them feel like they were fighting against a god. And their actions had angered this god, so as punishment, he finally revealed their true identities.
Some of Snake's men were stunned and completely gave up resisting; others wanted to run away as soon as possible, but the question was how many people were watching this hacker war? Intelligence agencies from all over the world were watching! Just five minutes later, FBI agents appeared at their door.
Looking at the list Xiaomin provided, Chen Xu realized there was still some information he hadn't printed out, namely the punishment for Snake.
Snake was arrested in 2009. Because the members of this organization were involved with many world-renowned large companies such as Microsoft, Dell, and Intel, this was considered big news at the time. Therefore, Xiaomin's file also contains corresponding records: the leaders, Camelot and Dr. Danny, were sentenced to a total of more than 300 years in prison, and the others were sentenced to at least 7 years in prison.
More importantly, because of Snake's notoriety and the numerous murders they committed, the US government, under immense public pressure, dared not resort to special measures to deal with them... such as targeting certain types of prisoners and making them work for the country in exchange for limited freedom.
In other words, these people are destined to go to jail, especially the two masterminds, who will spend hundreds of years in prison, and... it might even be worse!
Shortly after, programmers from companies like Microsoft posted on the Red Hacker Alliance forum, confirming the arrests of those on the aforementioned list. Moreover, almost the entire world's top programmers are now watching this battle closely; Snake's arrogance and malicious spread of the virus have enraged countless people.
Among these people are likely some influential figures, and even a self-proclaimed California state legislator posted that Snake's people should be imprisoned for life.
Whether it's true or not, that's unclear. Anyway, it's still afternoon in the US, so maybe some congressmen are just bored and have nothing better to do than follow the internet?
Chen Xu quickly released a dedicated removal tool for the "Terminator" virus on the Red Hacker Alliance forum, along with a data recovery function. Because computer hard drives are partitioned into sectors, if files are deleted using ordinary methods and no new files are added to the hard drive, ordinary data recovery software can repair them.
However, the "Terminator" virus deletes files on the hard drive while simultaneously creating junk files. This means the file information recorded in the sectors will be filled with new junk files, meaning that even if the files are recovered, only the junk files will be recovered, and the important files will be gone.
However, with the data recovery software released by Chen Xu, the hard drive can be successfully restored to its state before the virus infection, and junk files on the hard drive can be completely deleted, solving the problem once and for all.