| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 21, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
| ||||||||
 | ||||||||
| COVER STORY
How This Happened to Yahoo!, eBay, and E*Trade Disrupting the Net isn't child's play, but it isn't rocket science, either. And cleaning up the mess takes teamwork. STEP 1 An individual or group downloads software that is readily available at scores of underground Web sites specializing in hacker tools. The software is easy to use; it's all point-and-click. STEP 2 They break into scores of computers on the Web and plant a portion of the downloaded program, allowing the hacker to control the machine. Unfortunately, there are plenty of machines on the Net that lack the proper security to stop this. STEP 3 They pick a target--Yahoo!, eBay, or Amazon.com--and then sit back in the privacy of their homes and instruct the computers they've hijacked to send requests for information to that site. One or two messages won't do it. But send enough of them at the same time and the resulting congestion clogs networks or brings computer servers and router systems to their knees. It's like constantly dialing a telephone number so that no one else can get through. STEP 4 Responding can take hours. Tracing attackers is hard because they use fake addresses from scores of computers. But as systems administrators sift through the traffic, they can identify the general location--say, an Internet service provider. This takes a coordinated effort involving the company, its ISP, and telecom suppliers. After identifying the machines, the company writes a program to reject the requests--and prays that it doesn't get another flood of messages. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
|  |
 | |
 RELATED ITEMS Cyber Crime COVER IMAGE: Cyber Crime CHART: Computer Security Breaches Are on the Rise...And the Most Popular Route In Is the Net...Ad TABLE: How This Happened to Yahoo!, eBay, and E*Trade TABLE: Storming the Fortress ONLINE ORIGINAL: Take an Information-Systems Security Test ONLINE ORIGINAL: Why Internet Security Stocks Could Be a Safe Play INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
|
Copyright 2000-2008, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use Privacy Notice  |