[fwd] Cracker Attack Paralyzes Panix

[Paul Ferguson <pferguso () cisco com>]

FYI: Edupage excerpt of a WSJ article.

- paul

> Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 17:18:14 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Edupage Editors <educom () elanor oit unc edu>
> To: "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" <edupage () elanor oit unc edu>
> Subject: Edupage, 12 September 1996

> CRACKER ATTACK PARALYZES PANIX
> Repeated attacks by a computer cracker have virtually shut down New York's
> Public Access Networks Corp., better known as Panix.  The attacks have
> overwhelmed the computers' capacity to respond to requests for an
> "electronic handshake" by sending as many as 150 bogus requests a second.
> "This is the first major attack of a kind that I believe to be the final
> Internet security problem," says a Lucent Technologies Internet security
> expert, who says he "has been waiting" for just such an event.  Internet
> computers have no quick way of distinguishing these bogus requests from real
> ones, and even when security software is upgraded to ease the problem, the
> crackers could respond with even more intense assaults.  "There's going to
> be the usual arms race," predicts the Lucent security expert, between
> improved security measures and crackers' ability to disable them.  (Wall
> Street Journal 12 Sep B1)

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