Can someone please explain the recent CyberWars and what the hackers did?

[Crystal Clarity]

Specifically:

1) What exactly did they do to MasterCard, PayPal ect? On one of the threads someone described it as "the computer equivalent of protesting in front of the building", while others said it was more than that.

2) What level of computer expertise does it take to do what they did? Were these very sophisticated attacks-(or whatever you want to call them)?


3) Can real terrorists do something akin to what they did in order to destroy our infrastructure (or something equally serious) somehow? For example, disrupt a large Electrical Power Grid causing massive blackouts?


I hope this topic is ok for this forum. The whole incident is fascinating to me but I didn't know who else to ask and you guys have been great in the past. I am just very curious about what happened from a technical perspective, but have only a rudimentary understanding of computers and the workings of the web in general...

[struggle4progress]

1. (1) They probably overworked servers with requests, rather

analogous to tying up phone calls with too many phone calls; (2) Such "denial of service" attacks can be done in a variety of ways, some requiring lots of attackers but very little sophistication, others requiring fewer attackers but using more sophisticated techniques; (3) Dunno the answer in general, but if I knew about it I'd be unlikely to post very much about it on a public bulletin board

[Crystal Clarity]

2. D'oh- to #3

I had considered the question based on some public info in the MSM regarding the WLeaks info themselves, so it's probably not a revelation to anyone, but certainly answers in the know could be. You're right. Please pardon that one. :dunce:

Thanks for the other 2 answers. I definitely 'get' #1 and answer #2 helped. Thanks for taking the time. :hi: