[ISN] Cal State combats thieves in cyberspace

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: security curmudgeon <jericho at attrition.org>

: http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_2982853
: 
: By Katy Murphy
: STAFF WRITER  
: 08/29/2005 
:  HAYWARD Every morning, Thomas Dixon goes into his office at California 
: State University, East Bay, knowing that a million attempts will be made 
: - each hour - to break into the computer system he is charged with 
: protecting.

So he gets 277 "attempts to break into the computer system" PER
SECOND.

That's over 150 megs of logs per hour at the absolute minimum, over
3.6 gigs of logs a day.

Again, how often do we have to read these bogus stats in news
articles?  Why can't they simply explain what an "attempt" means
exactly? I know the net is a bad place, and a significant percentage
of traffic is malicious, but this stat seems completely out of line.

: Dick Metz, vice president of administration and business affairs for the 
: university, said he didnt know whether the phisher was simply gaming the 
: system or trying to steal information. As far as he knows, no reports of 
: fraud or misuse of data have been made in connection with the break-in, 
: he said.

Someone breaks into the machine, potentially steals 2,300 personal
records, and he is called a 'phisher'?! Even buying into all the
stupid buzz words for every type of computer crime, this isn't
phishing.