Hypothetically, if the world's best hackers came together, how much damage possible?

Phusius · Aug 28, 2012

Let's say, best hackers in the world from all nations came together. Had unlimited resources as in money to buy parts, or whatever they need.

Could they shut down the entire internet for a month or a week even? (I am just trying to guesstimate how much power even the best hackers have in the the most recent of years.)

Bo$$ · Aug 28, 2012

Phusius said:
Let's say, best hackers in the world from all nations came together. Had unlimited resources as in money to buy parts, or whatever they need.

Could they shut down the entire internet for a month or a week even? (I am just trying to guesstimate how much power even the best hackers have in the the most recent of years.)

Theoretically anything is possible...
I wouldn't like to see that happen at all...

Phusius · Aug 28, 2012

@Bo$$ I don't want to see anything like that either, I just am not entirely sure what the elite hackers are capable of and I want to understand better. Anomynous and Lulsec didn't impress me, they shut down some stuff for what a few hours at most, maybe stole some credit card information, etc? All very minor imho, but if they had the power to shut down the internet for top retailers like Amazon or something for more than a week, that could cause quite a hiccup in the stock market or something.

OnePostWonder · Aug 28, 2012

We've seen a nuclear facility be afflicted by a virus in the last year or so, so I'd wager to say they could do more than shut down the internet.

sneekypeet · Aug 28, 2012

They wouldn't take out the net, they can't! What would they do with no interwebz?

tacosRcool · Aug 28, 2012

Too many nerds in one place! Isn't that what the Star Wars conventions are for?!

FordGT90Concept · Aug 28, 2012

The internet is too decentralized and diverse for anyone to "shut down the entire internet."

manofthem · Aug 28, 2012

Phusius said:
Let's say, best hackers in the world from all nations came together. Had unlimited resources as in money to buy parts, or whatever they need.

Could they shut down the entire internet for a month or a week even? (I am just trying to guesstimate how much power even the best hackers have in the the most recent of years.)

They tried that... John McClane stopped them! Firesale extinguished! :roll:

phanbuey · Aug 28, 2012

I would predict that alot of the real professional hackers with the most experience already work as whitehat or are in IT security. Alot of the malicious stuff gets caught fast.

But if the world's best hackers got together, the impact would only be limited to the scope of what they wanted to attack. Especially if they pulled out all of the stops (including dating that ugly girl from accounting on Match.com to get access to systems).

Phusius · Aug 28, 2012

sneekypeet said:
They wouldn't take out the net, they can't! What would they do with no interwebz?

The economy would probably crash hard if no internet for an entire week. Every business in the modern era is connected to it.

Norton · Aug 28, 2012

Why would a hacker take out the entire net??? How would they tell anyone how cool they are for doing it?

That would be like sawing a branch off of a tree while your sitting on it.... :laugh:

Phusius · Aug 28, 2012

Norton said:
Why would a hacker take out the entire net??? How would they tell anyone how cool they are for doing it?

That would be like sawing a branch off of a tree while your sitting on it....

Some men just hate, they want to see the world burn. Alfred from Batman

cadaveca · Aug 28, 2012

Phusius said:
Anomynous and Lulsec didn't impress me.

They shouldn't. They did not really do anything special, hack-wise. DDOS attacks are the lamest possible...A real hacker puts a backdoor silently, and captures ALL network traffic, then uses it, WITHOUT DETECTION.

Taking a site out, making your "hack" public, is not how it works...I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a viable way to draw attention, but truly, not that useful, either socially or financially, and ultimately, is a case of a bark worse than the bite. Once hte victim know they are being hacked...it's not really much of a hack, is it? They simly unplug, change hardware, power back up with new MAC IDs and new routing hardware, and your DDOS hack is useless...

Is it possible to shut down the internet? Technically, no. Anyone with a router at home ahs thier own internet, and with wireless, can connect to other routers...and even though you might take down ISPs, you'd never actually prevent networking, os no, they could not kill the internet.

LIke, for example, the best example I cna come up with...create a virus that flashes the BIOS of a motherboard, OC's the machine, and then destroys the CPU via voltage. THAT might kill the internet.

Guess what...similar tech is in any new Intel PC.

Delta6326 · Aug 28, 2012

Realistically to shut down the internet you would need to create a Trojan and have it go into all the servers around the world and at a preset time have it send out virus to all computer for a few min. then once it hits a certain time whip all the hard drives connected to those servers and computers...

Chance of this being able to be done 0.0000000000000000001%

manofthem said:
They tried that... John McClane stopped them! Firesale extinguished!

Thats what I was going to say!

Sir B. Fannybottom · Aug 28, 2012

manofthem said:
They tried that... John McClane stopped them! Firesale extinguished!

It's okay, Jen has it.

Munki · Aug 29, 2012

You mean worm?

Delta6326 said:
Realistically to shut down the internet you would need to create a Trojan and have it go into all the servers around the world and at a preset time have it send out virus to all computer for a few min. then once it hits a certain time whip all the hard drives connected to those servers and computers...

Chance of this being able to be done 0.0000000000000000001%

Thats what I was going to say!

http://img.techpowerup.org/120827/Capture139.jpg

Nordic · Aug 29, 2012

You wouldn't have to be a hacker to stop the world wide web. You could just cut some strategic internet wires underneath the ocean.

Delta6326 · Aug 29, 2012

Munki said:
You mean worm?

Yes, that too.

the54thvoid · Aug 29, 2012

Hmm.

Shut down the internet....

Isn't that what China does to its own citizens?

Besides, there's more internet lurking under there, in the dark...

AphexDreamer · Aug 29, 2012

The question shouldn't be how much damage is possible but what would their intentions be?

m1dg3t · Aug 29, 2012

Taking down the internet would achieve what many governments, businesses, politicians, etc hope for already; a cease to easily accesible information/knowledge.

You would be doing them a service :eek:

bbmarley · Aug 29, 2012

kevinheraiz said:
it's okay, jen has it.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:and9gcsenqty6kxv1lvc-g0e5fglqr7yyzvc7ah79l5und5prq1gwanzrw&t=1

lol

natr0n · Aug 29, 2012

It would be nice for them to reveal some truths that all the governments hide from us.

W1zzard · Aug 29, 2012

Phusius said:
Let's say, best hackers in the world from all nations came together.

they would probably be busy copying warez/mp3/porn and then play counter-strike

tacosRcool · Aug 29, 2012

W1zzard said:
they would probably be busy copying warez/mp3/porn and then play counter-strike

You know, you may be right! Too bad I rape them at Counter-Strike

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Hypothetically, if the world's best hackers came together, how much damage possible?

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