Hackers overwhelm key servers

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/020706dnbushackerattack.1197a9.html

Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002.

Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted for hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines.

The attacks appeared to target UltraDNS, the company that operates servers managing traffic for Web sites ending in "org" and some other suffixes, experts said. Company officials did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Among the targeted "root" servers that manage global Internet traffic were ones operated by the Defense Department and the Internet's primary oversight body.

[whistle]

1. I think eBay servers were affected

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. Whaddaya wanna bet . . .

. . . the DOD is behind this attack on the "tubes" . . .

[Casablanca]

5. I'll second that bet.

They can't outlaw the Net, so they infiltrate and destabilize it. If well-paid hackers outside of the DoD can do it, better-paid hackers inside the DoD can do it also.

Why? Same rationale all hackers have - because they can.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. yes.

anytime they choose.

[Casablanca]

7. The real bet is, do people have the balls to stand against it?

Or will they continue to invest in the corruption, justifying it?

[Teaser]

9. Even so, they FAIL

next time fucks, try harder.

[Raydawg1234]

12. No. Pobably China or North Korea.

Why so quick to blame the U.S. gov?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

13. fascism

[Raydawg1234]

17. a nice intelligent and informed response

:sarcasm:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

19. i'm 48. the country i grew up in, is no longer recognizable.

nixon was a choir-boy compared to these slippery neocons. i put nothing, nothing past these sociopaths.

yes, that was a smart-assed response, and i apologize.

i'm scared outta my mind what's gonna happen if they bomb Iran.

i should stay focused on stopping this war, and avoid threads like this entirely.

[Greyhound]

3. Thanks for the info. I hope there is some follow-up when more is learned. n/t

:kick:

[TexasLawyer]

4. smile

:sarcasm: Phewww! At least voting machines and tabulators are never susceptible to hackers! :sarcasm:

[Posteritatis]

8. Clue the clueless here?

I obviously don't expect much in terms of details out of most tech news like this, so I'm curious as to how the structure there works. Obviously it isn't likely to be just thirteen individual computers as opposed to, I assume, big scary server rooms with Halon switches and blinkenlights and all that, for instance.

For those in the know, just what is the structure of these thirteen systems anyway? What's their primary purpose (beyond the minimally helpful "manage global computer traffic"), and what makes them especially significant? Is it just the scale of the operation - they're the thirteen largest chunks of the backbone - or is there something else that makes them particularly notable?

[mcscajun]

10. Some helpful info...DNS (Domain Name System) makes the web go 'round

Redundancy and diversity

The root DNS servers are essential to the function of the Internet, as so many protocols use DNS, either directly or indirectly. They are potential points of failure for the entire Internet. For this reason, there are 13 named root servers worldwide. There are no more root servers because a single DNS reply can only be 512 bytes long; while it is possible to fit 15 root servers in a datagram of this size, the variable size of DNS packets makes it prudent to only have 13 root servers.

They are housed in multiple sites with high bandwidth access, to try to prevent attacks such as distributed denial-of-service attacks. Most of these single-site installations are still in the United States. Usually each DNS server in a given site is actually a cluster of servers behind a load-balancing set of routers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_root_zone#Technical_details_of_root_server_lookup

http://root-servers.org/

[many a good man]

11. In English

DNS (domain name servers) perform name resolution. You type in an address, like democraticunderground.com, and the dns resolves it to an actual computer on the internet. They contain huge "routing tables", which are just a listing of all registered web sites along with their internet address. Without these you would never be able to find a website. Take down enough of them all web traffic slows to a halt.

You don't want too many dns servers because then it would be too hard to keep them all in sync. The internet has multiple redundant pathways to reach any website in case one set of pathways becomes unavailable. The old telephone system (public switched telephone network or pstn works the same way). Remember, the internet was created by DARPA, part of the defense department, to ensure communications can continue in the event of a nuclear attack. It is highly resilient.

[Blue_Tires]

18. thanks

[truthisfreedom]

14. I didn't notice a thing.

[lpbk2713]

15. I was having trouble connecting to my RoadRunner Mail Server today.

This might explain why.

[Cobalt Violet]

16. My service was out for a while this morning.

Not sure if that's why but it could be.