Malicious Life Hack Back
Mar 7, 2018
Stories of baiting attackers and exposing their identities to shame and deter future strikes. Cold War sabotage tactics reimagined as cyber offensive defenses. Modern methods that hijack attacker machines and the legal risks they bring. Debates over vigilantism, collateral harm, and proposals for sanctioned counterhacking.
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Georgian Doxing Sting Revealed Attacker
- Georgian CERT tricked Russian attackers by planting a fake NATO file that delivered malware back to the attacker.
- They captured screenshots, webcam footage, and compiled a 27-page dox revealing the hacker's ties to Russia.
Farewell Dossier Sabotaged Soviet Tech
- The CIA and NSA fed the USSR intentionally sabotaged technical documents via a defector's dossier called the Farewell Dossier.
- That deception led to faulty Soviet systems and a massive pipeline explosion in 1982 attributed to sabotaged control software.
Hackback Can Be Technically Simple
- Modern hackbacks can be as simple as planting a weaponized decoy file to gain remote access to attackers.
- Such techniques reuse the same exploit methods attackers employ against defenders.