Kitz Forum

Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: snadge on February 23, 2020, 07:13:20 PM

Title: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: snadge on February 23, 2020, 07:13:20 PM
my nephew who is 14 has someone on Xbox live who says he's hacked his internet and has his IP address and could switch off his internet, sounds like kids thinking they know everything n more than adults and trying scaring tactics , annoying thing is it appears my nephew won't believe anything I say about it, that he can't strop his internet unless he has 10,000 zombie (hacked) PC's that will bombard him with DDoS attacks making his connection useless...

EDIT: he actually used the term "he said he can completely turn off my internet"...lol... so what he guna break into plusnet and turn off all their customers

he also says he rings the house fone and hacks that and charges them money and they are not allowed to answer the house phone - told him to ring his ISP

is this just kids trying to play with his head?


ive spent 2 days there and internet worked just fine no DDoS - I think he's easily led astray..i was at his age :(

thoughts..?

thanks
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: mrk26 on February 23, 2020, 07:25:04 PM
Not sure how is set (and actually what it is) internet connection (modem, router etc) but I very much doubt.
I think one kid said something similar to my son about two years ago when he played famous fortnite game, then I joined lobby and asked him how he want to hack someone behind double gateway with double ddos, and turned off ping respond from internet plus dynamic ip, then I told poor kid to go back to school to learn something and don't waste my time, that was it.
These kids are not clever enough to go to shop and buy bread and milk, not to mention serious stuff like hacking.
Fill really sorry to them, and for your nephew nothing to worry about, just block these poor kids in game.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: d2d4j on February 23, 2020, 08:24:36 PM
Hi

I would strongly advise you tell him to report to Xbox who will investigate and take appropriate actions (usually a ban). Xbox do record all and can look back

Do not get into any type of conversation with the other user

Many thanks

John
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: kitz on February 23, 2020, 09:18:52 PM
Sounds like a scare tactic to me. 
If he did has his IP address what is he going to do with it?  You leave traces of your IP all over the internet, but I thought Xbox services automatically hide your IP. 
Even if by some obscure chance he could launch a DDoS attack (which I doubt)... then if your nephew is on a dynamic IP it's so easily solved.
   
Although that said, this would not be a standard DDoS on a [web]server sat in some data-centre with a big fat internet pipe right next door.

This is a residential broadband connection which uses shared resources and shared bandwidth. To reach the EU it will have to come through the ISP's gateway, over the backhaul, through god knows how many routers and a layer 2 switch at the exchange.   If you think about it,  the amount of traffic generated by "10,000 zombie PCs" travelling down the back-haul to one particular home destination on shared bandwidth is going to attract a heck of a lot of attention elsewhere first.   
No CP/SP is going to be happy about that and will likely have something in place at the gateway before it starts congesting their back-haul to a particular destination.   They can't risk having a shed load of unhappy customers complaining their internet has ground to a halt too, so any wise ISP would surely have some form of ddos mitigation in place much higher up.

The house phone threat also sounds like total BS.   I've never heard of being able to hack someone's landline just by phoning them up??   :wry:   
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: jelv on February 23, 2020, 11:41:59 PM
my nephew who is 14 has someone on Xbox live who says he's hacked his internet and has his IP address and could switch off his internet, i dunno if this is true or not, sounds like kids thinking they know everything n more than adults and trying scaring tactics , annoying thing is my nephew won't believe anything you say that he can't unless he has 10,000 zombie (hacked) PC's that will bombard him with DDoS attacks making his connection useless...
]he also says he rings the house fone and hacks that and charges them money and they are not allowed to answer the house phone

An admission that criminal offences have been committed! Make a report to the police?
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: sevenlayermuddle on February 24, 2020, 12:45:15 AM
An admission that criminal offences have been committed! Make a report to the police?

I’m not so sure.  The people involved are apparently young kids.   Do young kids deserve a criminal record, for mischief?   

As a technologically mischievous teenager of the 1970s, with a transient interest in various naughtinesses involving interference with my parents (and neighbours!) radios and TVs, I’m glad that attitudes then were different.  :(

Maybe one difference is, in the 1970s, such kids tended to be clever, often clever beyond comprehension of parents and teachers.   Nowadays perhaps it’s the thick ones, who are encouraged to think they’re clever by dumbed down media, that maybe cause problems?
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: jelv on February 24, 2020, 09:17:27 AM
We're lucky in this small town to have an excellent PCSO. A quiet informal word with him would result in him making a visit to the 'offender' sufficient to frighten them but nothing being put on record.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: d2d4j on February 24, 2020, 09:39:16 AM
Hi

I do not want to scare monger but nothing I have read suggests the culprit is known to the nephew. If I am apologies in advance

We live in a wicked world so need to be careful

The best way is to use Xbox report function and let Xbox deal with it

Xbox will investigate fully, looking at all communications from the offending person coming from that particular Xbox (not just username I believe) and will take appropriate actions depending upon the findings

If Xbox needed to, they would report to correct organisations for further investigations and provide them with their evidence

Many thanks

John
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: Bowdon on February 24, 2020, 12:43:53 PM
This person probably has the ip address.

I mainly use a PS4 and mainly play GTA5 Online quite a lot.

Many games these days don't have a centralised server. They are too cheap to pay for that. So the online connections are directly connecting to each others consoles (not sure of the name of that network type).

I saw a video some years ago where some kids used a PC that used wireshark (? not sure if thats the name of the program, I'm sure others know of it), and used it to see all the other players in the ps4 session as they joined and left the session.

In the video they did something that managed to disconnect the ip address they were targetting. But I think all it does is knock them off the gaming session. I've had similar happen to me in the past. Like some idiot is arguing with me and next thing everyone else in the session suddenly leaves, which usually means I've left. But that's really the extent of the attack. They can't generate enough traffic constantly to keep from using your connection. I just re-join another session and thats it.

Companies need to start buying servers again instead of having everyones details susceptable.

PS.

Just looking around youtube these 'free' services that will boot someone offline are known as stressers.

It amazes me how much of a loser someone as to be to not only use one but to make it public they are using them. Seems some kids these days have no shame or self respect.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: snadge on February 24, 2020, 01:16:59 PM
THANKS GUYS.. convincing him is another thing cos after every answer I gave he fired a return backing him up saying "but he knows his stuff"..

he probably watched a R.A.T video on youtube n now thinks he is Capn Crunch lol
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on February 24, 2020, 06:40:47 PM
Many games these days don't have a centralised server. They are too cheap to pay for that. So the online connections are directly connecting to each others consoles (not sure of the name of that network type).

That would be peer to peer.

Its a good idea in principle, if it keeps games online that would otherwise be too costly to maintain a server for its user base.  Sadly this is often not the case as they still need a centralised management server to establish the sessions in the first place.  So it becomes the worst of all worlds.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: adrianw on February 26, 2020, 08:25:42 PM
I’m not so sure.  The people involved are apparently young kids.   Do young kids deserve a criminal record, for mischief?   

I would be delighted if all proven black hat hackers and script kiddies of any age gained a criminal record.

Report them.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: sevenlayermuddle on February 27, 2020, 12:49:33 AM
I would be delighted if all proven black hat hackers and script kiddies of any age gained a criminal record.

Report them.

Any particular reason for such strong feelings?

In 40 years in the industry, I have never personally known anybody, ever, to be a victim of targeted computer hacking.  My linkedin password was once leaked, but that was a combination of incompetence by the operator, and an attack targeted at linkedin, it wasn’t targeted at me.  :)

Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on February 27, 2020, 02:51:11 AM
Indeed, I lost my credit card details in the Boomerang Video hack (stupid having them in clear text accessible to the web, plus I hadn't been a customer in years so they rather should have deleted them) and plenty of random attempts to crack my SSH password, but never a targeted attack.

Then again, if kids believe they can just get away with it they end up doing what the Nintendo hacker did and having the book thrown at them when they are adults.  So you definitely need to scare them out of it somehow, although I agree having a permanent record seems very unfair.

I'm sure a lot of us have done things as teens we wish we hadn't and would not want a permanent record of somewhere.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: adrianw on February 27, 2020, 06:01:12 AM
Any particular reason for such strong feelings?

In 40 years in the industry, I have never personally known anybody, ever, to be a victim of targeted computer hacking.  My linkedin password was once leaked, but that was a combination of incompetence by the operator, and an attack targeted at linkedin, it wasn’t targeted at me.  :)
I am old, crotchety, and dislike vandalism.

My firewall logs show that both my sites see a rejected break-in attempt every 30 seconds or so.

On the leakage front, try https://haveibeenpwned.com/ which reports that my email address appears in 11 collections.
Nowadays I use the Chrome Password Checkup extension and change to a unique strong password whenever I trip across yet another breached user & password combination.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: sevenlayermuddle on February 27, 2020, 10:58:21 AM
I suspect only a very small proportion of leaks are a result of hacking, far more likely to be just low tech crime, and sometimes just by accident.

Your email address ‘leaks’ every time you send an email - there’s nothing to stop the recipient from broadcasting it to the world.  I recently received a village newsletter where the sender had visibly cc’d everybody.  No malicious hacking, just an innocent but predictable mistake.

Your IP address ‘leaks’ with every website you visit, it is always visible to the website operator.  Similarly DNS servers etc, all can record your IP.  Through incompetence, or criminal intent (no hacking involved), they can disclose it.

Your card number ‘leaks’ with every transaction, in the high street as well as online.  I suspect (anybody know for sure?) that applies to contactless too, so if you swipe to buy a coffee at a market stall... leaked.  It potentially leaks big time if you pay for something by phone as you have to read it aloud, including even the 3 digit security number.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: adrianw on February 27, 2020, 11:41:27 AM
I am not that concerned  by email or IP address leaks. Other than the spam. I have had the same email address for a very long time.

CC numbers should not leak between your browser and the server if a secure transmission method is used. There is a lot to be said for HTTPS everywhere. Provided the organisation and staff are honest.
Physical card transactions and contactless should be secure, but I can worry about it.
Access to call center recordings could be lucrative.

The sort of leak which worries me are those which include email address / username, plain text password either negligently stored that way by the leak source or cracked, and other sensitive information.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: sevenlayermuddle on February 27, 2020, 01:07:38 PM
Every time another human being gets sight of my data, I regard it as potentially ‘leaked’.  They might be dishonest, or they might just be stupid, but unless I have reason to trust them an awful lot, I have to regard that data as no longer being private.   

That applies in particular to credit card numbers and always has done, predating online transactions.   Nowadays, I think (?) it even applies to contactless purchases using cards.   The merchant or retailer, who I don’t know from Adam, gets to see my card number.   Fortunately a card number on its own, absent of security code, is of limited use to fraudsters - otherwise I’d probably not use bank cards at all, online or in the high street.   

Not sure how it applies to other contactless payments, such as my Apple watch.  That gets assigned its own unique equivalent of a card number, so the retailer never gets to see the number printed on my card, or so I understand.  I do use it most often these days.

The only time I experienced an actual worrying problem was a British Airways fiasco a few years back when, through incredible incompetence, they disclosed the card numbers and CVV security codes to fraudsters.  On that occasion I did take the precaution of immediately calling the bank to cancel the card, without waiting for the bank to do so themselves, and without waiting to see if it was actually misused.
Title: Re: Hacking IP Address?
Post by: snadge on February 27, 2020, 01:16:56 PM
In 15 years of hard internet use, I've only ONCE had a serious issue (not that serious actually) and it was my fault as I ran an Apache server to test a forum locally..unbeknown to me I had set it up the wrong way which allowed a backdoor for hackers.. I went shopping, came back and everyone in my email had been spammed..this was in 2011

never had any issues since, I always use good AV's (as per AV-Comparative and AV-Test results), good browser addons (Firefox + uBlock Origin, Ghostery, Privacy Badger, W.OT. and Containers so I can use Youtube logged in for my subscriptions, but not be logged in to any other Google services, I highly recommend it, I have a container for Bank, Facebook, Google and Youtube - it prevent cross-site scripting - a bit like a Tab is its own browser..

I also use ExpressVPN which is great...

couldnt ask for more protection other than using TAILS as OS and TOR as Brower... but thats OTT and for Dark Web users