Powerful Attack Cripples Internet

Fox News ^ | 10.23.02

[phasma proeliator]

thanks for the ping.

[ncpastor]

"This is only a test..."

[Tijeras_Slim]

I wondered why my machine was so slow with FR on Monday. I actually got some work done.

[elfman2]

That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

[justlurking]

I wondered why my machine was so slow with FR on Monday.

This attack had no efffect on your connection to FR. Once you first connected, your computer would have cached the numeric IP address and used it without using the DNS servers that were under attack.

[DB]

It's best if your computer looks like a black hole from the net.

A wireless 802.11x network is easy to setup. I would strongly recommend using only Orinoco Gold cards. Use 128 bit encryption. If you use Windows 2000 or XP, setup users with permissions and passwords for everything. You can make it boot and log-on automatically so you don't have to enter anything to access your own network. It makes it much more difficult for outsiders to get in.

I use a Win2k computer for an Internet server (and a music server). I use a program called WinGate to provide Internet sharing and firewall. Wingate allows me to share Internet access on two separate networks, a wired one and a wireless one. I've configured it so the wired and wireless networks are isolated from each other with different IP ranges yet can still share Internet access. This keeps the wireless computers from infecting my wired work network.

[justlurking]

What did they do? Push a button?

They enabled a filter on their firewall to block the incoming flood of data. It was easily distinguishable from "legitimate" requests.

[twigs]

The FBI and White House were investigating

Interesting. Is this what Linda Franklin, victim of murder in Falls Church last week, was working on?

[Cold Heat]

Thanks for the info!

[watchwoman]

"Fox is well on their way to tabloidism"...they have been there for a while, IMHO.

[Enemy Of The State]

Actually you can defend against DOS attack by controlling or redirecting the flow of packets. Its pretty simple...just have to catch it in time.

[boris]

I noticed it too, and net performance today is still suffering.

--Boris

[ELS]

Since most don't have a clue, this type of exploit would in fact cripple the internet.

It depends on how one defines "cripple." IMHO, it would get rid of all the noise/traffic of those who can't navigate their way around without DNS mapping. For me, that would be a good thing. ;-)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I did notice something in fact. The net really slowed down to a crawl and then no service for a while. This is very unusual for my ISP/DSL.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

For those who'd like to be educated.....

A Brief History of the Internet, by those who made the history

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Hahahahaha - that's really hilarious!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

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

I've got a friend who apparently buys every gadget he sees advertised on TV. He says don't waste your money on this one. Worthless. Caller ID does a better job. If you don't recognize the number, don't answer. Or better yet, if it's a telemarketer, answer the phone then tell them "Put me on your "do not call" list." Those are the magic words in the telemarketing industry. By law, telemarketers must NOT call you back after you've uttered those words or they can be fined up to something like $10,000 per offense if they do.

[mikenola]

This is a crap headline. The internet was not crippled. Headline should read "Internet infrastructure survives large scale attack."

Due to the distributed/cached nature of the DNS, the root servers would have to be offline for a LONG time for average users to notice.

[isom35]

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

taking a decisive stand there eh?