4 Months = 10,348 Hack Attempts = 10,348 Failures

[Tiberius]

10,348 Hack Attempts detected.

I log all activity, ergo I detect all of them.

Also, is it really a good idea to broadcast this? You might as well be presenting a challenge to every hacker on the net and promptly sticking a target on your own forehead.

Sure, and if I wasn't 100% certain about the security of our server, I wouldn't have done it. About the only thing that is ever going to affect us is DoS attacks, which isn't hacking.

[Ace Otana]

Tiberius ->

[Welsh cake]

Tiberius, how many of those were actual hackers trying to force their way into the server and not some mindless data-miners or spambots?

Or are you not in any position to comment yet if you decide to prosecute? Either way your answer is understandable and of much interest.

[Tiberius]

Tiberius, how many of those were actual hackers trying to force their way into the server and not some mindless data-miners or spambots?

Or are you not in any position to comment yet if you decide to prosecute? Either way your answer is understandable and of much interest.

Well, that depends on what you mean. Each of these attempts was created by an actual hacker (or script kiddie), but those people use various programs to automate their attacks.

Certainly there could be a hacker who has a program running which tries to find servers on the Internet and then runs a number of logon attempts at them, but it was still started by an "actual hacker". The fact it is automated doesn't make it any less of a hack attempt; it's still a crime.

All these attempts came from only 146 different IP addresses.

[Napoléon]

I have their IP addresses, and once I have finished my MSc (few weeks), I will be writing to the owners of them.

Make sure you show us your warning of pain... *ahem* I mean message to them

And ofcourse their responses if any of them actually do.

[5thHorseman]

A touch off topic, but are you looking to go on to a Phd/Dphil once youre finished you're masters, T?

[Tiberius]

A touch off topic, but are you looking to go on to a Phd/Dphil once youre finished you're masters, T?

No, I've been working full-time for the past year, and I'm pretty much settled on my career for now. At this point I'd see doing a PhD or something equivalent as a waste of my time, since it's 4-5 years and the pay is terrible. After it, I have a doctorate, sure, but what am I going to do with it? Hardly anyone who makes it in the computer security field has a PhD; we are all people who have built careers and did cool stuff on the side.

I'd rather spend that same amount of time doing a job I love and getting promoted in the company I work for, whilst doing cool things on the side. At my company we have a 25% rule, where 25% of your time is to be spent on researching / developing something that interests you. At the moment, I'm working with a colleague on an application that can scan entire networks for interesting data, but my boss has told me I can continue working on my MSc Fuzzing tool during company time, as long as they can show it (and me) off from time to time (I'd keep all the intellectual property rights, etc.)