The probable "purpose of obtaining illicit access to random devices on the 
Internet these days” is to create botnets to attack more lucrative targets or 
to employ them as gateway devices to provide access to local networks which may 
contain targets of interest.

James R. Cutler
james.cut...@consultant.com
GPG keys: hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net



> On Dec 12, 2020, at 5:26 PM, Peter E. Fry <p...@tailbone.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Simple question: What's the purpose of obtaining illicit access to random 
> devices on the Internet these days, considering that a large majority of 
> attacks are now launched from cheap, readily available and poorly 
> managed/overseen "cloud" services?  Finding anything worthwhile to steal on 
> random machines on the Internet seems unlikely, as does obtaining access 
> superior (in e.g. location, bandwidth, anonymity, etc.) to the service from 
> which the attack was launched.
> 
> 
> I was thinking about this the other day as I was poking at my firewall, and 
> hopped onto the archives (here and elsewhere) to see if I could find any 
> discussion.  I found a few mentions (e.g. "Microsoft is hacking my 
> Asterisk???"), but I didn't catch any mention of purpose.  Am I missing 
> something obvious (either a purpose or a discussion of such)?  Have I lost my 
> mind entirely?  (Can't hurt to check, as I'd likely be the last to know.)
> 
> 
> Peter E. Fry
> 
> 

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