Internet Under Hack Attack

[webfusion]

Reported three hours ago, the entire Internet system worldwide is still trying to shake off the effects of a major hacker attack. Individual users are not noticing the attacks, but three of the main 'root' servers were crippled (including DoD).

John Crain, chief technical officer for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said the attack was continuing and so was the hunt for its origin.

"I don't think anybody has the full picture," Crain said. "We're looking at the data."
byline: TED BRIDIS, Associated Press


Don't you cringe at the thought of the Internet going down?

[Grammatron]

Isn't the whole point of the Internet to be a robust and decentralized so such thing can not happen?

[wahrheit]

Isn't the whole point of the Internet to be a robust and decentralized so such thing can not happen?

They attacked the root DNS servers. The ICANN managed root server L and the root server G, which is under supervision of the Department of Defense, were temporarily unavailable.

However, most of the 13 root servers suffered no or little damage.

Most internet users did not notice the attacks, since only some domains .org, .info and .uk were affected. Also, some .va (Vatican) domains.

All in all - no serious damage done.

[drkitten]

Isn't the whole point of the Internet to be a robust and decentralized so such thing can not happen?

The Internet, yes. Domain Name Service,....not so much.

I've actually been using this possiblity for years as an example scenario in security lectures. Is there
some more citable story out there than "my buddy webfusion said that ...."?

[wahrheit]

Is there some more citable story out there than "my buddy webfusion said that ...."?
Dunno about English sites, I only got my german source for that kind of news, heise.de (http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/84880). They are top-notch.

[TragicMonkey]

Hack attack! Get off my back! Or I will attack, and you don't want that!

I got the power....yay hey hey. I got the power!

[wahrheit]

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/451445c9264fd3137.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4024)

show-off.

[TragicMonkey]

Hey, I never asked for the honor which I so richly deserved.

[geni]

The Internet, yes. Domain Name Service,....not so much.

I've actually been using this possiblity for years as an example scenario in security lectures. Is there
some more citable story out there than "my buddy webfusion said that ...."?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/02/06/HNrootserverattack_1.html

Its been a known problem for year. I rmeber people getting excited about the last one.

[geni]

Isn't the whole point of the Internet to be a robust and decentralized so such thing can not happen?

A common myth. While technicaly you still acess sites if you know the IP the loss of DNS servers is a rather serious problem. Heck a few years back a large part of the UK was knocked ofline by the loss of a transatlantic cable. The internet isn't nearly as solid as people would like you to belive and thats before we get countries which put all their webtraffic through a single server.

[webfusion]

drkitten, I cited Associated Press, and provided the name of the AP reporter who is covering the story. That's not "my buddy webfusion said" ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/ap_on_hi_te/internet_attacks;_ylt=AmOR.v2a8t1yzFpG41HkJ15I2ocA ;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[davefoc]

Does anybody know any of the technical details of the attack?

And while we're at it might I ask a few DNS questions? I envision that there is one master DNS server someplace and that a DNS request is normally handled by a low level DNS server unless it doesn't know about the particular URL requested in which case it makes a request to a higher level server for the information which might eventually result in a request for an unknown name all the way up to the master DNS server.

So three questions: Is what I envision roughly correct? If so, how many levels of DNS servers are there? Did this attack mostly affect the higher level DNS servers and even if they went down entirely the lower level DNS servers would still handle most DNS requests without a noticeable problem to most users?

[wahrheit]

Hey, I never asked for the honor which I so richly deserved.
:rub:

snip

So three questions: Is what I envision roughly correct? If so, how many levels of DNS servers are there? Did this attack mostly affect the higher level DNS servers and even if they went down entirely the lower level DNS servers would still handle most DNS requests without a noticeable problem to most users?

The attack affected the top level, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_root_zone#Technical_details_of_root_server_loo kup for a brief description how this root (master, top level) DNS stuff works.