Do you know what DDoS stands for? You might have seen it bandied around more frequently lately re: Twitter outages. Well for those that don’t know it stands for “distributed denial of service”.
A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers. *closes wiki page*
I recently saw first hand the hassles a DDoS attack can cause when the Melbourne International Film Festival’s site was attacked by Chinese groups who were angry over the screening of a certain film.
A documentary called “Web Warriors” I just watched “offers an unprecedented glimpse into the world’s newest and most vulnerable frontier: cyberspace. The film takes us into the world of hackers like Mafia Boy – a 15-year-old high school student who rose to infamy by causing millions of dollars in damage after single-handedly shutting down internet giants – including Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Dell, eTrade, and CNN.” The film also delves into the underground world of “hired gun” hackers who hunt down the source of a computer virus with the hopes of collecting the $250,000 reward being offered by Microsoft.
SOOOOOO, these targets are usually huge corporations -why should you care? Well, while hacking and cyber terrorism seems like it’s another league to our daily internet use or relatively humble company websites- if you watch the doco or read this thought about Govt. censoring the web (put into Neemee™ by Byron) you might just think again. Heck, if you’re a Christian, you’ve become a target -according to the latest 4-chan prank.
However, it’s what we don’t know about that is the really spooky stuff…
“Computer viruses now have the ability to control millions of computers unbeknownst to their owners, creating massive illegal computer networks known as ‘Botnets’. These ‘Botnets’ are being put to illicit uses including identity theft and cyber extortion. A massive cyber attack against Estonia in 2007 virtually shut down the country. Web Warriors offers rare interviews with cyber sleuths from the FBI, the Pentagon, NATO, and the American Department of Homeland Security who explain how cyberspace has become the latest battle ground between nation states, and how terrorist groups are already plotting their next move.”
Remember the Shielding™ wave warns us: “It’s not paranoia if something is really out to get you.”™
