Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : GNET invests in NDB. A good fit? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sarkie who wrote (84)	2/25/2000 11:33:00 AM
From: Sarkie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 151

FOCUS - Web broker NDB.com down, blames hackers (recasts lead, adds details on hacker attack) NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - National Discount Brokers Group Inc. said its stock trading Web site was down for more than an hour on Thursday, due to an apparent computer hacker attack. National Discount, a brokerage and share dealer, said its NDB.com's Web site froze early in the afternoon after it was flooded with information requests from two Internet addresses. The company fixed the problem by disconnecting the two Web addresses and had its site back up by 2.15 p.m. EST, said National Discount Chairman Dennis Marino. "It had the earmarks of a hacker attack," Marino said in a telephone interview. "It appears to be some what similar to the 'denial of service' attacks in that it was a concerted, concentrated generation of traffic." Computer hackers earlier this month paralyzed some of the Web's most popular sites, including those of media company Yahoo Inc. , online auction site eBay Inc and online broker E*Trade Group Inc's . Through a practice known as "denial of service," hackers set up automatic programs that bombard Web sites with so many information requests that legitimate users cannot log on. National Discount initially blamed the outage on technical problems at the two companies that connect it to the Internet, PSINet Inc. and Exodus Communications Inc. . A spokesman for PSINet of Herndon, Va., said National Discount's problem did not originate at his company. Exodus of Santa Clara, Calif., declined comment. The outage meant that National Discount 200,000 customers could not funnel stock orders through the firm's Web site, although they could relay orders over the phone. One NDB.com customer in San Diego, Josh Landess, said he kept getting error messages as he tried to log on to the site. "I couldn't get in at all," said Landess, a self-described day trader. "It looks like there was some hacking going on." National Discount alerted regulators and law enforcement agencies to the apparent hacker attack, Marino said, adding he expected officials to start examining the firm's data shortly. ((-- Financial Services Desk, +1 212 859 1725))