[no dems]

I can't get in to the website at the moment... so either a LOT of people are trying to see the video at the same time or the DNC is doing a Denial of Service attack. Forgive my ignorance but how does one do a "Denial of Service attack"? Just have people jam up the website?

[FlJoePa]

Anyone else been listening to Van O'Dell on Medved?

Pretty damning stuff. I hope we can get a transcript at some point.

[weegee]

Forgive my ignorance but how does one do a "Denial of Service attack"? Just have people jam up the website?

http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-12/dc-12-speakers.html#CrimethInc

Electronic Civil Disobedience and the Republican National Convention

An introduction to the theory of hacktivism and the usage of hacking skills as a means of fighting for social justice by pressuring corporations and government to adopt progressive changes. Explores the history of electronic civil disobedience, tips on how to wage your own ECD campaigns, and how to participate in the upcoming actions to coincide with the protests against the Republican National Convention in late August.

CrimetheInc is an Anarchist hacker revolutionary having led successful electronic civil disobedience campaigns against a variety of government and corporate targets. Experienced political activist, having helped organize dozens of large protests against the war in Iraq, global capitalism and neo-liberal free trade agreements. Is currently organizing a multi-pronged hacktivist campaign against the Republican National Convention to coincide with the massive demonstrations to take place in New York City. Specific history about the speaker is not available due to the nature of this project.

[So Cal Rocket]

Forgive my ignorance but how does one do a "Denial of Service attack"? Just have people jam up the website?

In a typical internet connection, a user sends a message asking the server to authenticate it. The server returns the authentication approval to the user. The user acknowledges this approval and then is allowed onto the server.

In a denial of service attack, the user sends several authentication requests to the server, filling it up. All requests have false return addresses, so the server can't find the user when it tries to send the authentication approval. The server waits, sometimes more than a minute, before closing the connection. When it does close the connection, the attacker sends a new batch of forged requests, and the process begins again--tying up the service indefinitely.

[dinasour]

Forgive my ignorance but how does one do a "Denial of Service attack"?

You write a program that simulates 100's of thousands of actual users, and just tie the computer up trying to respond to phony requests.

This is probably not an attack, they are being overwhelmed by actual users. It's not easy to spec a web site that can handle sudden peaks. Just ask JimRob.