Re: Recent Attacks

[Darren Reed <darrenr () reed wattle id au>]

In some email I received from Paul D. Robertson, sie wrote:
[...]
> Viruses have *clearly* cost more money over time, and yet I don't see the
> same outroar there.  I'm not sure if that's due to market dynamics (it's a
> good business to be in the "antivirus" vendor space), or if it's something
> else, or maybe the sentencing this week is the start of that?

Viruses are a problem which can be `managed'.  They're `damage' is also
localized in effect - a pc here or there and aren't exactly something
which is high profile.  Keep backups of important data, etc, and you're
relatively safe.  What's more, if you turn the computer off, the virus
dies with it.

Knocking out www.amazon.com for X hours, effects an entire company.
It's visible to everyone who tries to do business with them.  If they
turn their web servers off, the attack still runs.

But these attacks do more than that.  They also, with their publicity,
suggest that perhaps the Internet isn't the most fabulous place to be
generating new business.  With all the billions of dollars put into
the Internet, the last thing a lot of people want to feel is that it's
wasted money or even at risk with no long term way of protecting people
from the DDoS attaks.

Darren