This news just read my mind. I was thinking lately about when such an attack would happen.

A DDOS attack can be executed by script kiddies without too much problem, and a serious hacker or anyone with a better knowledge of this business could really have done way better than this.

The only thing that surprises me in this attack to the root servers is how long do the bad guys take before attempting this seriously. As a economist interested in cyber-security and e-banking protection, I've done some research in these subjects and I'm totally sure that, if a higher-level hacker would have attempted this, global Internet would have a really serious time trying to defende itself.

Let's say something for real: any virus-writer who respects himself know how to do a program which tries to launch a DDOS to some server.

Also, most home users download anything who seems to be funny, cute and/or (depending on who is using the computer) a nude pic of the new hot model in town.

Disguising a Trojan and programming it to orchestrate an attack in different periods of time would be as easy as making a song play or a disk to be wiped out.

Probably the attack just lasted an hour to avoid being found. Guess what could have happen if the attack had been launched from all around the globe, under the remote (or automate) control of the attacker.

Moral: or all of us begin to care quite more about Net security (home and global), or the next attack would probably get to shut Internet down for we-don't-know-how-much-time.

D. Allain

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/1413/16912#16912