FBI Web site attacked
WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- There has been another "denial of
service" cyber-attack against a high-profile Web site, sources told UPI
Wednesday -- this time the target was the FBI's own Web page, which was
taken out of action for several hours Tuesday.
The attack hit just as the FBI was posting information about the 50th
anniversary of its "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list, which was
celebrated Tuesday at the bureau with the opening of a permanent
headquarters exhibit.
A "denial of service" attack overwhelms a Web site with requests for
information, but with "spoofed" -- fabricated -- return e-mail
addresses. A site tries to endlessly answer the requests, and in effect
ties itself in knots until it shuts down.
There was no indication yet on whether Tuesday's cyber-attack was a
"distributed" denial of service attack, similar to those launched
against major commerical sites on the Internet early last month. Those
attacks temporarily crippled Yahoo!, E-Trade, CNN.com and others.
U.S. investigators were still pursuing leads on the latest attack
Wednesday, defining its nature.
A "distributed" attack is one which uses "innocent" third-party
computer systems.
Illegal hackers, called "crackers," usually find the attack software
"tools" available "in the wild" on the Internet.
The "distributed denial of service," or DDOS, tools enable a cracker
to break into an unsuspecting computer system and implant "packets" or
"daemons" that will cause the system to launch an attack against a
target unless detected and disabled in time. Literally hundreds of
"zombie" computer systems can be infected, without their operators'
knowledge, and can launch a simultaneous attack.
The FBI is still searching for at least two unnamed suspects in
February's attacks. Much of the search has been concentrated in Canada
with the help of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Agents are also concentrating on Germany, where the DDOS "tools" may
have originated, though Germany is not believed to be the country of
origin for the actual attacks.
There was no immediate indication Wednesday that the attack on the
FBI site came from the same suspects wanted for the attacks on the
commerical sites.
-0-
|
