Powerful Attack Cripples Internet

Fox News ^ | 10.23.02

[Enemy Of The State]

WASHINGTON  — An unusually powerful electronic attack briefly crippled nine of the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet traffic this week, officials disclosed Tuesday. But most Internet users didn't notice because the attack only lasted one hour.

The FBI and White House were investigating. One official described the attack Monday as the most sophisticated and large-scale assault against these crucial computers in the history of the Internet. The origin of the attack was not known.

[Lucas1]

Interesting...it would be wild if someone could (which apparently they can) bring down the internet. I guess that might get peoples attention. Would mine!

[Enemy Of The State]

Didn't notice? The origin of the attack was not known?

I noticed and as far as being unknown...well, the US wouldn't want to point the finger with the Chinese President in route to the Crawford Ranch now would they?

I propose that we drop the big DOS bomb on China...anyone up for some fun?

[Mitchell]

Interesting in light of everything else going on in recent weeks.

Maybe it's related, maybe it's not.

[Enemy Of The State]

They cant bring down the entire internet...dont forget who invented it..and no, Im not talking about AL Gore. The internet was designed by the DOD and just because they dont have all the newly evolving holes covered doesnt mean they dont have the situation under control.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Where is Al Gore when you need him?

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Where is Al Gore when you need him?

OH hes under the bed with his arse in the air as usual

[Squantos]

fyi

[chnsmok]

I thought it my download of the 200+MB download of the Army game (which is cool) on a really crappy dial-up connection that did it.

[Nick Danger]

Who's the bozo that came up with the headline about "crippling the Internet" when the story says most users didn't even notice? Is that the Associated Press? Fox News?

Reuters headlined their story, "Bid to Cripple Internet Fails, Experts Say."

[Enemy Of The State]

Nicely put! Hadn't read reuters...just Fox.

I noticed because I have the majority of Subnet IPs from China blocked out of my firewall and it was going off the hook the other day.

[Lucas1]

I noticed the slow down. I am wondering though...you mentioned that they can't bring down the entire net. Why is that?

[Enemy Of The State]

im on the way to bed right now and thats a kinda short but kinda long answer so Ill get back to you unless someone else picks up the tab.

[Delta 21]

The internet is like a big spiders web. If one leg goes down the traffic can be routed a different way and still reach its destination. Plus its fairly redundant with numerous backups and is fairly redundant with numerous backups.

[Steely Tom]

Plus its fairly redundant with numerous backups and is fairly redundant with numerous backups.

The internet or this sentence?

(steely)

[PoorMuttly]

"Bid to Cripple Internet Fails, Bert Says."

[zook]

I think they are terribly wrong about this attack not harming anything. I'm in Taiwan, and it was clear that something fouled up our internet access. Today is the first day in about a week that I've been able to get reasonable access to most western web sites. Something rotten going on out there.

[The Person]

Was this the time when FR took 15 minutes to load a page a day or two ago?

[Jeff Chandler]

because they dont have all the newly evolving holes covered doesnt mean they dont have the situation under control.

They CAN'T cover those holes; it was a denial of service attack brought about through packeting. There is no way to defend against such an attack. All they can do is get the servers back up and running again as fast as possible, and track down the rat b*$t**d who took them down.

[PoorMuttly]

You wouldn't possibly know where Muttly could get his hands on some Pingtungs, would you ?

Nah...what are the odds.

[zook]

Actually, I might be able to do that, if I knew what they were. I am in Pingtung, as a matter of fact!

[PoorMuttly]

...uh...don't worry about what they are...just send me all you got.

They're utterly harmless...and of no value...trust me..no value.

[PoorMuttly]

Just don't forget to poke holes in the box...and whatever you do...don't shake it !

[John Lenin]

Where is Al Gore when you need him?

[American Preservative]

FYI Ping.

Thread indexed - FR Topic Register (Scroll down to tech index and click)

[Cold Heat]

I was getting pings from all over the East coast and Canada. I had to turn off the warnings because it was interrupting every 30 seconds. Wierd?????? They were net bios port scans, hundreds of them and for several days. Normally I only get a few per day.

[John Lenin]

Get a hard firewall/router. It stopped all attacks on me , that I know of.

[Cold Heat]

Zone pro is blocking them. I just had to turn the alerts off. Just got one now. Have gotten 5 in 5 minutes.

[Cold Heat]

Whois information for IP address 64.141.24.41

No results found

This is what I get on the back trace.

[Cold Heat]

Did some more seaching. I located the source as Sunwave.net in British Coumbia. Getting numerous pings from that area. I have no idea what the significance is.

[John Lenin]

NeoTrace Trace Version 3.25 Results
Target: entertainment.yahoo.com
Date: 10/23/2002 (Wednesday), 1:58:30 AM
Nodes: 13
Node Data
Node Net Reg IP Address Location Node Name
11 1 1 64.159.2.41 San Jose gige10-
0.ipcolo3.sanjose1.level3.net

[American in Israel]

Since the intifadda I get most of my craptraffic from UK and Spain. Seems the Moslems are more advanced there. I average a hack attack about once every 3 minutes at home at peak times down to one every 15 minutes on quiet news weeks. Seems to track the Political heat pretty well.It is not fun to have an IP number in the Israel block.

[John Lenin]

Sorry wrong IP this is it. Seattle !

NeoTrace Trace Version 3.25 Results
Target: 64.141.24.41
Date: 10/23/2002 (Wednesday), 2:02:55 AM
Nodes: 19

Node Data
Node Net Reg IP Address Location Node Name
13 1 1 129.250.10.22 Seattle ge-
1.bigpipe.sttlwa01.bb.verio.net

[GeekDejure]

An unusually powerful electronic attack briefly crippled nine of the 13 computer servers...

Fox Shmox. . . it was NOT nine out of 13 !!!

It was actually 9 out of thirteen . . . but I'll try harder next time !!! ;-))

[wewillnotfail]

bump

[Cold Heat]

"Houston, it looks like we have a problem!"

The feds have set up a I-net group to counter the threat. I wish them luck. With all the DNS worms etc. and the hacking I am surprised we still have a net.

[Cold Heat]

Hell! Just got popped again! This time they tried to route traffic thru me to who knows what! Somethings rotten somewhere.

[John Lenin]

Mitnick is working on it.

[Cold Heat]

This attack is still in progress IMHO! The last four I got were from Great Britain, China, and Chech. they are searching for a opening to route traffic.

The web sites I get on or use frequently are notifiying me of changed addresses. (the only thing they can do to stay up I guess)

[John Lenin]

Buy a Linksys router with built in firewall. You can get one for under $80 on ebay.

[Cold Heat]

I will do that, but my network(in home) is currently down. I have some upgrading to do on my main computer. Using a laptop on a dialup right now. I am thinking about wireless but I need more info. The old router I had did not have a firewall so I rely on zone. Not even using the router now. The address is new(month old). This is not usual to get this many hits.

I wish I was more knowledgable about network protocol. I would write a little something to send to some of these probers. Make their keyboards smoke or something!

[Cold Heat]

While I am on a rant, I might as well finish it!

My friggin telephone has been ringing off the hook as well. There is never anyone on the other end. I figure they are looking for you to answer the phone, then take your PH# and put it in a data base that they sell as good contact numbers or something. Then the telemarketers and pollsters start calling.

I may get totally pissed and go back to letter writing and smoke signals.

[dalereed]

"My friggin telephone has been ringing off the hook as well. There is never anyone on the other end"

Those are automated telemarketing calls. It dials 8 or 10 numbers and takes the first one that answers and leaves the others to answer a dead call.

[Cold Heat]

leaves the others to answer a dead call.

Will a call zapper help? I keep seeing them advertised.

[The Red Zone]

It dials 8 or 10 numbers and takes the first one that answers and leaves the others to answer a dead call.

I wish Congress would outlaw these under pain of death.

[Cachelot]

I would write a little something to send to some of these probers. Make their keyboards smoke or something!

If you can give them an open port and a designated snip of html, you can actually get them to suck up an executable and run it automatically. With an exe, you can turn most current pc's into a dead paperweight. Trash :).

Problem is to give the exe only to the bad guys.

[patriciaruth]

We need a FReeper emergency system in case the internet goes down in a cyber attack, so we can still get news from sources other than liberal news media.

I've got the names and addresses and phone numbers of a few friends here at FR, but that's not much of a network.

[jdogbearhunter]

PING

[The Red Zone]

Is this like surfing the web? My virus scan software has never, ever alerted on a web page.

Still, some intermediate PC that has been hacked could be downed through the EXE. Could there be a kinder gentler version that doesn't take down the PC unless it is the originator, not a hackee? If it's a hackee, it should put a warning panel up on the console.