|
Hacker Cause of Internet Problems Yesterday
Found your internet connection a little slow
yesterday morning? Count yourself lucky, because
some 50.000 were completely cut off for more
than 30 minutes when a "hacker" caused a Denial
of Service attack (DoS attack) with the
Radiográfica Costarricense (Racsa) system.
Miguel Montero, technical chief at Racsa, said
that the hacker spread a virus ordering
thousands of computers in China to access a
server of a company in Costa Rica, a client of
Racsa. Montero preferred not to divulge the name
of the company under attack.
The large number of requests resulting from the
virus overloaded the Racsa system causing the
DoS. The attack affected some 50.000 users using
cable modem, who were totally disconnected for
half hour and affected thed 900-ENLINEA and Wi-Max
service with slowdowns.
According to Montero this is not the first time
of such an attack in Costa Rica, explaining that
in the past the effect on service was short,
three or four minutes, getting help from Racsa's
U.S. internet connection provided in stopping
offensive attacks.
In computer security and crime, a
denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a
computer resource unavailable to its intended
users. Although the means to, motives for and
targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally
comprises the concerted, malevolent efforts of a
person or persons to prevent an Internet site or
service from functioning efficiently or at all,
temporarily or indefinitely.
One common method of attack involves saturating
the target (victim) machine with external
communications requests, such that it cannot
respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so
slowly as to be rendered effectively
unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are
implemented by forcing the targeted computer(s)
to reset, or consume its resources such that it
can no longer provide its intended service;
and/or, obstructing the communication media
between the intended users and the victim so
that they can no longer communicate adequately.
Denial-of-service attacks are considered
violations of the IAB's Internet proper use
policy.
|
|
