The anonymous hacker group returns, SpaceX successfully launches the first commercial flight into space and the ship’s main controls scream Star Trek, and a list of well-known websites that port scan their visitors circulates on Reddit.
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Hacktivist group Anonymous has resurfaced to criticize the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of the murder of George Floyd on May 25. Although the decentralized group of hackers didn’t take responsibility for the takedown of the MPD’s website over the weekend, it’s not hard to imagine they were somehow involved based on a video they posted shortly before. The narration accuses MPD of having “a horrific track record of violence and corruption,” claiming that the killing of George Floyd was “merely the tip of the iceberg.” Users Sunday were asked to complete a captcha to ensure they were not automated bots orchestrating a DDoS attack.
Getting almost as much attention as SpaceX this weekend becoming the first company to send passengers to orbit on a privately made vehicle, are the touchscreen controls NASA astronauts used to steer the rocket towards the international space station. In the same way you scroll through emails and video game menus, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon pilots operated the shuttle with three large touchscreen panels and a few spare buttons below them.
Many well-known and heavily used web sites use a fraud protection script that port scans your local computer for remote access programs. Ports are sort of like mailbox addresses on your computer, so machines connecting to you know where to send certain requests and information. While every e-commerce site should use methods to detect fraud, Reddit has sparked an interesting discussion about what is and isn’t appropriate when it comes to port scanning and the security implications that come with the different methods.
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