Hearthlist Digest #410 - Wednesday, February 9, 2000 Rebellion on the net by "Craig Issod" <[email protected]> Re: Majestic Black Monday by <[email protected]>
(back) Subject: Rebellion on the net From: "Craig Issod" <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 21:28:30 -0500 Wow! Hackers shut down Yahoo, eBay, even slowed down Amazon today. Cnn.com is not reachable from here tonight either. This is like the tet offensive, a massive coordinated attack on many of the nets largest sites. The attacks are fairly easy to do. As complicated as the internet seems, much of the system works on trust...sort of like driving down the expressway. You aren't supposed to go in the other persons lane! On the internet, you can shut down a site simply by flooding it with requests for pages and other information. Any Mac, Windows or UNIX user can download free programs that POUND web servers with zillions of "fake" visitors every minute, slowing them to a crawl. In the world of bricks and mortar, this would be like having your competitor send hundreds of people into your store by telling them you are giving away free stoves! - it would be hard for you to find and service the one or two real customers that might stop in... This is also a tough problem to solve. The attackers could be anywhere in the world and can bounce their requests off innocent computers all over the network. We are still on the learning curve of the online world, and it takes lessons like this to improve the system... ------------------------------------------------------ Craig Issod HearthNet at http://www.hearth.com [email protected] Everything your Hearth Desires ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------
(back) Subject: Re: Majestic Black Monday From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 09:34:07 -0500 In a message dated 2/8/00 5:20:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: <<(we) tried to reach Diane, our account person in Indiana. She, of course, was gone. She = had been the first bright light in a long time in our dealings with the company. >> We echo Gary's sentiments. What a terrific lady... and no time to say goodbye or thanks. We will miss her terribly. Once again, we start all over.... Carrie Swan Black Swan Newtown, CT