The most interesting thing about the attack against the root DNS systems is that it probably wasn't all that sophisticated. Obviously the attackers were not much more than script kiddies since they failed to pull off their ultimate goal. Let's be completely realistic, if you want to create a denial of service to any system/network on the web, it wouldn't be all that difficult. With a little research time and using a few different unsophisticated methods almost any system could be brought it its knees. I applaude the root server administrators for preventing the outage of all servers, but at the same time I shake my head at the actual effort given by the attackers. As a security expert of many years, I frown at the community for not doing more on a proactive basis to stop such attacks from occurring.

The moral of this story is that any group/attacker with a little more knowledge than the script kiddies who attempted the attack on the root servers could take down critical systems on the web without breaking a sweat. This is a little scary considering how many people out there are actually capable of pulling off such an attack.

Metzelplik

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