-----Original Message----- From: Karl Denninger <karl@mcs.net> To: Richard Thomas <buglord@ex-pressnet.com> Cc: nanog@merit.edu <nanog@merit.edu> Date: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 6:54 PM Subject: Re: Government scrutiny is headed our way

Well, we do it one better - we black-hole the network.

I just added another ~60 prefixes to the list after another persistent smurf attack. I've given up trying to trace them myself (although we do report it) because the big networks, where this originates, are unwilling to help in a timely fashion.

If people bitch about the connectivity loss, well tough shit. Better to have a working network that can get to 99.5% of the Internet than a completely trashed one with full visibility.

Somehow I doubt there is a big demand for access to your network from these smurf relays. And if there is 1 person who happens to try, I doubt they will go running to their admins with "I know why we can't connect... Its 'cause we're a smurf relay". All the responsive clueful networks have protected themselves already, what we're dealing with now are the people who don't understand subtle messages like people blocking their connectivity.

I'm going to have to talk to our lawyers about whether or not we could *sue* the amplifier networks. Most of them are truly large organizations (ie: universities, big corporations, big national providers, etc) and could easily pay such a judgement.

I bet if you just got ONE big judgement there would be a lot more responsiveness out of some of the big guys... =)