-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:09 PM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: How many backbones here are filtering the makelovenotspam scr eensaver site?

on Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 12:55:02PM -0800, Chad Skidmore wrote: quoting me:

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What's the difference? Why is everyone so upset about Lycos and nobody seems to be doing much of anything about the /existing botnets/, which conservative estimates[1] already put at anywhere from 1-3K per botnet to upwards of 1-5M hosts total[2]?

Well, the primary difference is that Lycos is trying to market what they are doing as a "good" thing in a fairly public manner. If their vigilante efforts become accepted as "OK" then it further opens the door for others to take the next step towards making dDOS attacks ok as long as you feel your motivations are pure. As network operators we all need to make sure that we enforce our AUPs and make it known that breaking those AUPs is not ok just because you feel your motives are pure. Most AUPs have some language that basically states that dDOS and simlar activities are "bad" and we will take action if you engage in said "bad" activities.

My point was to Martin's question about what would happen if - god forbid - there were large botnets under the control of spammers; a careful reading will suggest that my major point was, duh, that there already are large botnets under the control of spammers.

Um, not 1 million bots - in concert. -M<