Cult of the Dead Cow

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the ASCII logo of the CDC

Cult of the Dead Cow ( CDC for short ) is a hacker group that was founded in 1984 in Lubbock , Texas , United States . It was best known for the (often illegally used) remote maintenance software Back Orifice . The group first publishes its new software and other media via its weblog .

history

The group was founded in June 1984 by Grandmaster Ratte and Frank Gibbe.

The group member Drunkfux established in December 1990, the hacker conference HoHoCon , usually in Houston took place. This hacking conference was the first of its kind and also invited journalists and law enforcement officers to participate.

In 1991 the group began to distribute self-recorded music on cassettes through their mailbox. Many of these recordings are now available online.

The Usenet - newsgroup "alt.fan.cult-dead-cow" was established in October 1994th cDc is the first hacker group with its own newsgroup. In November of the same year, the group claimed to have infected Ronald Reagan with Alzheimer's disease through a blowgun.

Cult of the Dead Cow declared war on Scientology in 1995 .

The cDc member Omega is considered to be the originator of the term "hacktivism" (de: hacktivism ), which he first mentioned in an email in 1998. From then on, activists coined the definition of the term, which refers to the development and use of technology to promote human rights and the open exchange of information.

In 1997, before the spread of music on the Internet became common, cDc published its own music in MP3 format on its website .

In February 2000, cDc was the subject of an 11-minute short documentary film called “Disinformation”. Also in February 2000, CDC member Mudge advised US President Bill Clinton on the subject of Internet security.

cDc communications

cDc communications is the umbrella organization of Cult of the Dead Cow. cDc is one of the three groups of cDc communications . The other two are the Ninja Strike Force and Hacktivismo.

Ninja Strike Force

In 1996 the cDc founded the Ninja Strike Force (NSF), a group of so-called ninja who were supposed to achieve the goals of the cDc "online and offline". The cDc opened the NSF Dōjō in 2004 . A member of the NSF also operates a streaming radio that offers recordings of hacker conferences, an alternative educational program and a variety of different pieces of music.

In 2006 the Ninja Strike Force launched its own website.

Hacktivismo

Hacktivismo was founded in 1999 by cDc and is an independent group under the umbrella of cDc communications. Her focus is on creating anti-censorship technology to strengthen human rights on the Internet. Access to information is one of the basic human rights.

The group's objectives are summarized in the Hacktivismo Declaration , which aims to transfer the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the protection of the political opposition under international law to the Internet.

Hacktivismo has also published its own software license under the name Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement .

Selection of important software releases

  • Back Orifice : The group was responsible for the release of Back Orifice in 1998, a well-known backdoor program, which was the first Trojan of its kind for the Windows operating system. After this Trojan caused an enormous wave of discussion about security issues after its publication on IRC and then on the Internet , a whole series of other such Trojans followed, for example SubSeven .
  • Goolag Scanner , a search tool with which it is possible to search for security gaps in other systems using the popular search engine Google using special search queries.
  • XeroBank (formerly: Torpark ): is used for anonymous surfing on Microsoft Windows without leaving any traces. XeroBank establishes a connection to the Tor network and provides an appropriately set up Firefox web browser. The software fits on a standard USB stick and can be started via an EXE file after it has been connected to the PC . The system default language is English; however, it also includes language support for German, French, Arabic, and simplified Chinese.

Web links

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  1. ↑ alt.fan.cult-dead-cow. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Fleming, Reid. "Official CDC Press Release Concerning President Reagan" . CULT OF THE DEAD COW Issue Number 281, November 1, 1994
  3. ↑ Swamp rat. "Statement Concerning the 'Church' of Scientology" ( Memento of March 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). CULT OF THE DEAD COW Press Release, June 4, 1995.
  4. ^ "Hacktivism and How It Got Here" ( Memento from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Michelle Delio, wired.com , July 14, 2004, accessed June 1, 2017
  5. ↑ CDC communications. "'Kingpin' by Weasel-MX" ( Memento from March 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). cDc Paramedia Audio # 1, June 27, 1997.
  6. ↑ Young, Steve, Major Garrett, and Associated Press. "Clinton fights hackers, with a hacker" ( September 15, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ). CNN Online February 15, 2000.
  7. ↑ CDC communications. "Press Release" . CULT OF THE DEAD COW Press Release, October 22, 1996.
  8. ^ NSF Dojo
  9. ↑ Ninja Strike Force
  10. ↑ Oxblood Ruffin. "The Hacktivismo Declaration - INTERNATIONAL BOOKBURNING IN PROGRESS" ( Memento from May 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). July 4, 2001. ( "THE HACKTIVISMO DECLARATION" - German translation)
  11. ^ Oxblood Ruffin and Eric Grimm. "Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement" ( Memento of February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). November 26, 2002.
  12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ http://www.torrify.com/