Posted on 02/08/2007 4:27:39 AM PST by xcamel
Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of "Safer Internet Day," a 40-country effort to raise awareness about computer and Internet security. But the day probably didn't feel too safe for the dozens of unheralded technologists responsible for defending the World Wide Web against one of the most concerted attacks against the Internet's core since a similar assault in 2002.
Details about the sources, size and methods used in the attack are still trickling in, but like the celebration of Safer Internet Day, it's not clear that anyone using the Web at the time even took notice. That's largely a good thing, and I'll explain why later in this post. At around 7 p.m. ET on Monday, three of the Internet's 13 "root servers" -- the computers that provide the primary roadmap for nearly all Internet communications -- came under heavy and sustained attack from a fairly massive, remote-controlled network of zombie computers. These are machines infected surreptitiously with programs that allow criminals to control them remotely. The zombies were programmed to try to overwhelm several of the root servers with massive amounts of traffic.
Among the apparent targets was a root server controlled by the Department of Defense Network Information Center. There is also evidence to suggest the attackers targeted the servers responsible for managing the stability of the ".uk" and ".org" domains.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781205/posts
S. Korea: Trojan Horse Attacks Originating in China - Largest in History
We saw Global Crossing routers up and down all day.
You're right my porn seemed to take forever.
Mine, too! I'll need to get my Cialis script refilled!
Wow! Thanks. I was struggling with that.
Actually I did notice.
I was unable to immediately connect to several of my favorite websites during the described time. Also, many of the websites that I usually connect to seemed slower than normal. I just thought it was my ISP screwing me again.
Anyone want to take bets on the percentage of a certain OS's installed base making up the vast bulk of the compromised computers? IOW, which OS's installed base had a higher percentage of that base compromised for use in this attack?
At first I thought my computer was misbehaving, too.
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