Powerful Attack Cripples Internet

Fox News ^ | 10.23.02

[Salvation]

Only one word:

al-Qaeda?

[Salvation]

Ping!

Weren't you having problems a couple days ago?

[Mitchell]

> taking a decisive stand there eh?

LOL! There's not enough information to take a decisive stand.

I would normally assume this is just another hacker. And that's probably what it is, but given the rise in terrorist activities lately, it bears keeping an eye on.

If someone wants to put on a tinfoil hat and make a wild guess without further information, they're welcome to do so. I'll just watch and wait.

[TechJunkYard]

The attack is designed to take down DNS servers. Without good DNS info out there, the name www.freerepublic.com would not translate to their ip numbered address. You could still find site, you would just have to know the ip address. Since most don't have a clue, this type of exploit would in fact cripple the internet.

This was a test. This was only a test. Had this been an actual emergency, the attack would have lasted for days instead of just one hour.

Since every nameserver caches its information, and only the root nameservers were attacked, it would take some time for the authoritative nameservers for the Top Level Domains to notice (when their caches expire), then for the zone authoritative nameservers to drop their caches, then for all of the secondary nameservers at the ISPs to be affected.

I think someone was testing their DDoS network(s) and wanted to see how long it took VeriSign (and the others) to get their filters in place. No biggie. I can think of several more effective ways (which I won't go into) of "crippling" the Internet.

[I still care]

Fox has turned into all sniper, all the time. HELLO! There are other things going on in the world, yes? I would LOVE to see some coverage on the voter fraud in S. Dakota and elsewhere, and is Zimbabwe (they just killed the opposition leader in jail) ever going to do anyting they consider newsworthy?

[dfwgator]

I never answer my phone, I monitor on the answering machine, and if the person is worth talking to, I then pick up.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping and putting the article on the list!

[CCCnative]

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.

I too hate telemarketing calls. If anyone answers the phone at our house with the usual "Hello" and does not get an answer w/i 1 or 2 seconds we just hang up the phone. If it's important the caller will call back. Oh doesn't it get you when there seems to be noone on the line but you can hear the telemarketing 'boilerroom' noises in the background?

[Angelus Errare]

Um, in the last big talk about al-Qaeda websites, Johnathan Galt mentioned that "E-Jehad is a huge project now." This might be part of it, methinks.

[Enemy Of The State]

are you sure thats only one word? :-)

[anka]

they attacked the root servers.
i'd wager that most people don't have thier tcp/ip settings configured to point to these root servers but rather to their isp's.
that being said, they would have to take down a LOT more servers than just the root servers to have any effect.
they would also have to employ a lengthy/sustained DDOS attack on the root servers that would surpass the caching time for records in said servers to have any effect on the accuracy of the lower-level DNS servers.

keep in mind that the 'exploit' DID in fact 'take down' a large # of the root servers without any noticeable effect on end users. so, i don't see how it crippled (or could for that matter) the internet.

[EODGUY]

I was having problems with my computer during the time period noted. I've also been receiving some really strange email, each of which has a cryptic message and an attachment. Of course I delete them immediately.

Take care and thanks for the ping.

[Jeff Chandler]

Actually you can defend against DOS attack by controlling or redirecting the flow of packets

Providing they're directed towards the domain name, not the IP address (or so I'm told).

[Jeff Chandler]

al-Qaeda?

No, it wasn't.