Cybersecurity experts set up an “ambush” and watched hackers break into computers

Cybersecurity experts have watched hackers break into computers. As part of the experiment, they recorded 190 million events and 100 hours of video of the attackers’ actions, writes TechCrunch.

They did this by deliberately placing multiple servers on the Internet and configuring the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). This allowed the hackers to remotely control the compromised servers as if they were normal users.

The researchers set up a kind of “honeypot” for the attackers and began observing. As part of the experiment, they saw hackers take control of servers and perform a variety of activities on them, including reconnaissance, picking passwords for other computers, watching pornography, and more.

Experts say that a hacker who has successfully entered the “honey pot” can generate dozens of events alone.

“It’s basically like a surveillance camera for RDP system because we see everything,” says Andréanne Bergeron, who has a Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Montreal and works in a cybersecurity company GoSecure.

She and a colleague worked on an experiment categorizing hackers based on the types of characters in the game Dungeons and Dragons. For example, “Rangers” investigate computers and sometimes crack passwords, “Barbarians” use compromised computers for future hacks, “Wizards” use a “honeypot” as a platform to connect to other computers, “Thieves” try to monetize their actions, and “Bards” search for malware and watch porn.

Such research can be useful for law enforcement or cybersecurity defense teams.

“Law enforcement could lawfully intercept the RDP environments used by ransomware groups and collect intelligence in recorded sessions for use in investigations,” experts noted.

Earlier, it was reported that one of the hackers responsible for hacking Twitter three years ago will serve his sentence in the US federal prison. Joseph James O’Connor, 24, was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court in New York after pleading guilty in May to four counts of computer hacking, fraud and cyberstalking.