Setting the Scene

No matter how many times people are told to patch their systems,they somehow manage to forget to do it. It s something that has become a problem, not only for theperson who leaves his or her machine insecure but also for the people against whom that machine isused to attack once the insecurity has been exploited.

An argument against the use of strike-back methods is the fact that the identity of theattacker is never truly known. Are you being directly attacked, or has the attack been routedthrough an innocent, if not clueless, user?

This chapter will discuss what happens when two network administrators decide that they can twait for average users to get a clue, and take matters into their own hands.

Eric the Read

The bus smelled like rotten onions, or maybe it was just the guypassed out in the back. Eric hated public transportation, almost as much as he hated the people whoused it. It didn t matter that at that moment he was one of them. The guy across the aisle had beenstaring at him for at least 10 minutes; Eric was beginning to get really annoyed. Eric didn t likeconfrontation, never did, but he didn t like being a mark either, and it looked like this guy wassizing him up.

What are you looking at? Eric said.

Nothing, the guy said quietly.

That s funny; I m doing the same thing.

Eric kept eye contact. The guy s eyes closed slightly; he was squinting as...