IP: more on Google retaliates against comcast.net (fwd)

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie McCarthy <jamie () mccarthy vg>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 14:53:19 
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: Google retaliates against comcast.net (fwd)

> it looks like search engines will never be the same again.

As the news report itself notes, this behavior is not new.

Any web service that provides information that requires significant
resources -- for example, doing a query on a database that indexes
the entire internet! -- can easily be DoS'd (denial-of-serviced) by
one idiot with a cable modem and a perl script.

Why should Google allow thousands of dollars worth of equipment to
be tied up for hours or days, providing data to one person for free?

Providers of services that don't require user login have only one
option:  shutting off connections for a group of IP numbers,
typically the idiot's modem pool.  This will usually catch innocent
users too.  One can only hope there is a contact email address
provided and a human staffer at the other end to rectify as much of
the collateral damage as possible.

Meanwhile, there are enough open HTTP proxies out there to allow the
idiot with the perl script to bomb sites from literally thousands of
proxies simultaneously.  Such Distributed Denial of Service attacks
appear to come from all over the net and are almost impossible to
stop.  My prediction is that open web proxies will be seen in a few
years as open mail proxies are today:  enablers of resource theft.
And they will be stomped out by the same unpleasant blacklist
tactics as we currently see being used against spam.  The era of
anonymous net access is in its final months, thanks to the idiots.
--
 Jamie McCarthy
 jamie () mccarthy vg

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