iDEFENSE should sell the hallucinogens they're in clear possession/consumption of rather than the keystrokes they type while peaking. reckon the profit margin would be much higher f%^&ng ridiculous. the `i' must stand for imaginary

From: Jerry Irvine <JIrvine@iDefense.com> To: Subject: iDEFENSE iALERT: AboveNet Update, Evolved DDoS Tool Used Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 17:18:43 -0400 Importance: high X-Priority: 1

Evolved Version of DDoS Tool Poses Significant New Threat to Business Operations

iDEFENSE Intelligence Services April 26, 2000 5:10 pm (EST)

iDEFENSE believes that the behavior of the attack against AboveNet is an example of the logical progression of distributed denial of service tools. The devastating potential of this evolved tool was demonstrated during Tuesday's attack against AboveNet which took down one of the world's leading ISPs, for five hours, affecting companies such as eBay and Everyone.net. AboveNet also hosts sites for AOL and numerous other high profile companies. The extent of the disruption against these sites is not clear at this point.

The evolved tool can attack with a speed and viciousness not even seen during the attacks in early Feb. It appears to have a significantly enhanced ability to communicate with an army of drones which can then in turn talk to other drones at a significantly greater speed than what could be done by other DDoS tools earlier in the year. These older tools operated by sending one command from a master out to numerous zombies, the evolved version allows the attack to reach critical mass instantaneously and may prove significantly more difficult for investigators to identify the suspect.

In light of this new development, companies need to immediately review their incident response procedures in order to make sure they are adequate to manage this threat. Having redundancies and multi-homing built into their systems are key to minimizing the impact of an attack such as this.

While the motive for the attack is unclear at this point, the potential for future strikes in the coming weeks against AboveNet and/or other major ISPs and Web sites cannot be ruled out.

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For more information or comment please contact Jerry Irvine at 703.898.8283 <mailto:jirvine@idefense.com>

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