RE: SANS Flash: Urgent Request For Help In Stopping DOS Attacks

["R. DuFresne" <dufresne () sysinfo com>]

Mark,

Again, Rick is trying to explain how it really was.  Understand the
original system did not include such toys as www, mail, and usenet to
mention a few, these were addons, as was dns, in the days Rick seaks of
knowingly, and I allude to from stories heard from the grey beards still
about <I'm not quite as old as some of these folks (grin)>, folks grabbed
a host file for ip address mapping from a key server, the file was a
manageable ftp at those times.  Imagine attempting to do so 
now...

Thanks,

Ron DuFresne

On Thu, 13 Apr 2000 Mark.Teicher () predictive com wrote:

> I really don't think security forethought would have prevented today's 
> Internet from evolving, but it may have slowed it down to and hopefully 
> prevent the onslaught of security vulnerabilities that is ravaging the 
> country side and vendors.
>
> Developers, Programmers and other Engineers knew about buffer overflows, 
> poorly written protocols, etc.  At the time people were less concerned 
> about security since Daily NEWS bulletins were not available 24 hours a 
> day , seven days a week.  Today, as the communication medium now includes 
> the Internet as a major contributor in connecting people who are can far 
> far away or close by with in a blink of an eye.  Our view have changed, 
> governments have changed, and the cost of living has increased, therefore 
> introducing us to whole slew of problems waiting to happen. The Internet 
> as it stands right now will that medium that delivers the last 
> communication before the mushroom cloud is seen by billions of people, 
> either that we all get sucked up by the aliens who secretly gave us the 
> technology to develop high speed connectivity.. :)
>
>
>
> /m
>
>
>
>
> Rick Smith <rick_smith () securecomputing com>
> 04/13/00 09:35 AM
>
>  
>         To:     Mark.Teicher () predictive com
>         cc:     firewall-wizards () nfr net, JCarson () smartronix com, CrumrineGL () state gov
>         Subject:        RE: [fw-wiz] SANS Flash: Urgent Request For Help In Stopping DOS Attacks
>
>
> At 07:55 AM 04/13/2000 -0700, Mark.Teicher () predictive com wrote:
> > Actually, security was a big contributor in the Internet evolving, if it
> > was not for initial military funding, the Interner would not have existed
> > as early as it did.  Security features were definitely a big part back
> > then, but after some of the initial involvement was completed, other
> > parties got involved and things have evolved to what we have today..
>
> You seem to suggest that the Internet "lost" some security capabilities it
> had in its early days.
>
> I say that those security features would have prevented today's Internet
> from evolving.
>
> The security features you allude to were part of the original ARPANET,
> which was a closed network that could only be extended if the controlling
> authority (the DOD) agreed. All the "routers" (IMPS in Arpanet parlance)
> resided in relatively secure machine rooms managed by organizations that
> the DOD trusted to some extent (military bases, defense contractors, and
> universities heavily involved in defense research). It was a very 
> difficult
> and expensive proposition to get connected to the Arpanet. The network
> never grew past dozens of nodes and hundreds of hosts.
>
> Contrast this with the Internet. All you had to do was get a telecom
> connection to an ISP and you yourself could become an ISP. Nobody had to
> ask permission to add hosts to the Internet, they just did it. ISPs grew 
> up
> in garages, basements, under beds, anywhere. The lack of centralized
> control fueled the Internet's growth. But the technical flexibility that
> supported its exponential growth also allowed the recent rash of DDOS 
> attacks.
>
> Incidentally, none of us who worked on the Arpanet considered it a
> particularly "secure" network. Most of its security relied on the physical
> protection of IMPs and on administrative control of connected host
> computers. Software based access control was weak or nonexistent in many
> places, and dial-in numbers were widely and carelessly distrubuted. But it
> was very rare for peoples' work to be disrupted by outside interference. 
> So
> the user community didn't really want much more security.
>
> Rick.
> smith () securecomputing com

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