Computer War

From IDG News Service-

Online attackers have briefly disrupted service on at least two of the 13 "root" servers that are used to direct traffic on the Internet.

The attack, which began Tuesday at about 5:30 a.m. Eastern time, was the most significant attack against the root servers since an October 2002 distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, said Ben Petro, senior vice president of services with Internet service provider Neustar Inc. Root servers manage the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), used to translate Web addresses such as Amazon.com into the numerical Internet Protocol addresses used by machines.

The attack appeared to have been launched by a group of compromised PCs, called a botnet, Petro said.

Two of the root servers suffered badly, although they did not completely crash; some of the others also saw heavy traffic," said John Crain, chief technical officer with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN), in an e-mail interview


The two hardest-hit servers are maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense and ICANN, he added.

I remember the 2002 attack. It is on a much larger scale. Cyber attacks can be the next type of warfare. Our financial community and power grids for just two examples are heavily dependent on internet. Damaging these Ricks servers and cause a internet disruption would have serious consequences not just financially but to many things people take for granted.

Brian Krebs at the Washington Post puts forth other reasons for what happened Tuesday.

A number of technologists I spoke with who helped defend against the attack said it's too early to say definitively where the attack came from, but this perspective from an operator responsible for maintaining one of the root servers suggests that South Korea, China and the United States were the biggest source of computers used in the attack (the initial analysis suggest that 13 percent of machines involved in the attack were located here in San Francisco, the site of the RSA Security Conference, from which I'm currently blogging.)

Someone arrest Mr. Krebs. He is planning to take over the world!(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

In the news coverage so far, theories about the motives behind the attack varied widely, from speculation that it was just hacker mischief to notions that it was cooked up by curious criminals bent on testing their ability to extort the many wealthy and powerful interests that rely on a functioning Internet.

What news coverage? These stories were buried at Yahoo news and I've even forgotten how I found. Instead of Root Servers attacks and the danger of them, the MSM is too busy talking nonsense in the aftermath of Anna Nicole Smith's death. I so wanted to throw something at a television this afternoon(Betsy also commented on this wondering how those in 24 hours news can respect themselves.) as MSNBC, CNN and Fox all babbled on at that story.

Back to the servers and why they were attacked. Krebs theories are plausible and I'm no computer expert. However the DOD attacks have to regarded with alarm. They were also attacked in 2002. Call me paranoid,(I'm not but I just think everyone is against me) but I just don't believe in too many coincidences.

Note- Now I remember where I got the link to the WAPO story. Hat tip to R. Elgin at Marmot's Hole.
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