This was no simple attack that anyone who downloaded the tools could perform. Sorry, its just not true. From my understanding, the flood of packets was launched from several hundred hacked servers. Granted, the software tools Trinoo and others make it easier to hide the source of a DDoS attack, but they can't enable the attack. MafiaBoy had to use other methods to compromise these systems before he could ever install the DDoS tools. That required a lot of effort, time, and patience. This was no whim attack done just out of curiosity. The kid had a goal and put in a lot of effort to achieve the end results. I don't think we should toss the kid to the wolves, but some penalty needs to be imposed for the all the late night pages, phone calls, and overtime he imposed on sys-admins around the country.

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