Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, December 31,2014
ASHBURN,GA, 31714
VOL 109 - No. 53 • 500
www.thewiregrassfarmer.com
(Around Town\
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Coat drive
The Sycamore Police
Department is sponsoring a
winter coat drive for needy
people. Coats of all sizes
may be dropped off at City
Hall
Potrait artist
Portrait artist Julian Ter-
ron's display has been held
over at the Victoria Evans
Memorial Library for the
month of December. Do not
miss this exciting exhibi
tion!
Test assistance
Turner County Special
Services is assisting anyone
that needs a diploma that
has not passed the GHSGT,
or if you passed all portions
of the test, but lack at least
two classes. Please come
Mon-Thurs 4-6pm at Spe
cial Services School and let
us help you. The time is
now!
Firefighting
class
Ashburn Fire & Emer
gency Services will offer
the Basic Firefighter: Mod
ule One Course as part of its
in-service training program.
The course is a very fast
paced course, which is the
mandated training course
required by Georgia Law to
become a firefighter.
The class will begin on
Monday January 5th, 2014
at 6PM at Ashburn Fire &
Emergency Services Station
#2 located at 1070 Bridges
Road in Ashburn. The
(See BRIEFS Page 7)
Obituaries
Lawton Merriweather, 76,
Ashburn
Samuel Austin Law, III,
Albany
Complete obituary
\information is on Page 5
Serving Turner County Since 1902
Tracking the hackers
Ashburn man sets up experiment to track computer hackers. Results are scary
There is no good news from the attack data
on the conpot honeypot. It was attacked over
30,000 times and the hackers got in over
27,000 times. They were successful 90% of
the time...
by John McDuffie
Hackers are actively stalk
ing the internet looking for
their next victim. They use
websites and email designed to
infect computers with mali
cious software as their chief
means of attack and takeover.
Computer security compa
nies have stepped up their de
fense and research to help
combat these kinds of attacks.
The methods used by hackers
have to evolve to defeat com
puter security which forces
computer security experts to
evolve. It’s a back and forth
battle with no clear winner, but
hackers are smart and outnum
ber the good guys.
Websites and email are indi
rect methods of hacking be
cause the attack may or may
not work. There is no hacker in
the background actively work
ing to make the attacks work.
It’s a lot like fishing. Many
hackers are resorting to more
direct hacking methods to in
crease their success.
Four months ago I built sev
eral virtual servers with one
purpose in mind; researching
direct hacking traffic and the
tools used by the hackers.
Using a variety of honeypots,
software designed to pretend to
be something else, I monitored
internet traffic to the virtual
servers beginning in late Au
gust through Christmas of
2014. As a researcher, I was
excited by the massive amount
of attacks my fake servers re
ceived over the four months
they were active.
ATTACKS VARY
Some of the honeypots were
attacked less than five times.
The honeypots attacked the
most were, in order of attacks
received, kippo, conpot and
wordpot. Kippo pretends to be
an SSH server or secure shell.
SSH is used as a secure way to
login remotely to servers and
computers.
Many web server adminis
trators use SSH to do remote
maintenance on the server.
Other uses include logging into
office servers to do anything
from adding a user to reboot
ing to install server updates.
Hacking into a SSH on a
server would, in most cases,
give the hacker complete con
trol of that server and all the
data on it. The fake SSH in this
case was attacked more than
(See HACK Page 2)
cost is expected to be
$6,850,000, one of the most
expensive single-item projects
in Turner County’s history.
The apartments will be in
come-based.
Freezing temperatures come
to Ashburn. The fountain at
Elrod Park froze over creating
a sheet of ice that covered the
waterfall and the sidewalk and
out to the road.
One adult flu death was re
ported in South Georgia.
In sports the Rebels traveled
to Ocilla to face off in the Area
Duals. The Rebels finished 1st
place in the tournament. The
wrestling team also competed
in two other tournaments dur-
(See YEAR Page 2)
HOW COLD WAS IT?
January 2014 started
COLD. Turner County and
most of the nation went to
bed Monday night with
below freezing tempera
tures or temperatures ex
pected to drop below
freezing. In Turner County
some people set up their
water system to drip all
night creating some natu
ral ice sculptures like the
peach tree at right. Above
the fountain at Elrod-Veter-
ans Park also froze over,
creating a sheet of ice that
covered the waterfall and
the sidewalk all the way
out to the road.
JANUARY
Week 1
The Eureka
Heights project is a go.
The $5 million apartment com
plex is set to go into construc
tion in late spring/summer
2014. The location is 1060
West Washington in Ashburn.
The Ashburn City Council,
County Commission and the
Board of Education have been
working for years to get a
housing development at this
property.
The Sycamore City Council
lacked a quorum for a called
meeting the last week of De
cember. A new police depart
ment policy was approved at
an earlier called meeting and
City Council member Brenda
McNair accused a Sycamore
property owner of “spying” on
her. In other Sycamore news a
new Clerk was hired. Ap
proved by the Council in De
cember Ashley Topley
replaced Janice Varnadore,
who has worked as Clerk for
15 years and is leaving City
Hall.
In sports the 2nd annual
Ronalda Pierce Holiday
Hoopfest was held, however, a
fight ensued during the semifi
nal match between the Rebels
and Vikings of Lowndes
County after a foul by senior
Nate Martin. Fans and players
were on the court and police
were
eventually called
and after several minutes order
was restored. The game was
canceled. The revised tourna
ment was set to conclude later.
Week 2
Shelley Zorn leaves the
Chamber after 14 years to take
a job as economic developer in
Thomasville.
Turner County is now a Tier
2 County in state economic
rankings. Local officials say
this is wrong. They say the
data the state used for this
ranking is skewed and Turner
County is not a Tier 2 county.
Tier ranking has a direct effect
on how grant applications, tax
incentives for business and in
dustry and other economic in
centives for the county. In
short, it makes such help
harder to get. This is a major
matter for new business and in
dustry because Tier 1 counties
are able to offer significant tax
credits to new industry and
business and expansions. Tax
credits exist for Tier 2 coun
ties, but the amount offered is
much smaller.
Ashburn has submitted
parts of five roads in the City
for resurfacing under a state
program. Ashburn will have to
contribute 30 percent, $12,900,
of the cost.
The Ashburn City Council
were briefed about the coming
Eureka Heights housing com
plex. The apartments won’t be
available until 2015. The entire
HFRF'S TO A SAFF AND
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Garbage can provide important details for hackers: names, telephone numbers, a company's internal jargon.
Kevin Mitnick
