End-Users Put Their Machines at the Disposal of Russian Hackers

We previously reported on the Russian-Georgian conflict that had expanded beyond battlefield, reaching the Internet. Several official websites, among which the Georgian president's website, were hijacked. Recently, a few Russian hackers came up with another idea, meant to shut down as many websites of Georgia's representative institutions as possible.

StopGeorgia.ru was conceived as a tool for a massive attack against Georgian websites. The method employed by the attackers was to convince users that their computers were useful tools in the war against their neighbors. And there was no need for begging. Many Russians put their computers at the service of the hackers who prepared the attacks. Of course, more machines mean that more resources are available and this, in turn, implies a greater rate of success.

On the front page of the website, its creators posted a rather discrepant message to all the people who visit it. The message, roughly translated, sounds like this: "We appeal to all media and journalists to cover events objectively. Until the situation changes, we will interfere with the dissemination of false information given by the Western Georgian government. We are not the ones who launched an information war, so we are not responsible for its consequences."

The group, which does not call itself by any name, adds that it only wants to live in a peaceful world. "You can call us criminals, cyber terrorists or war activists. But we only fight against any unacceptable aggression against Russia in the global network." the attackers say. As U.S.A. Today reports, many people have already put their machines at hackers' will. The type of attacks that were performed with help from normal end-users are denial-of-service ones, which simply prevent access to the victim website.

The website is accompanied by a forum full of nationalist proclamations, while also comprising a list of all known official Georgian websites that the group is targeting. Although the list of websites is still available, the software that allowed users get into the criminal network has been apparently removed. Most likely, this happened after the international press reported on the unusual initiative.