Re: FBI bust DDoS 'Mafia'

[Paul Vixie <vixie () vix com>]

warning-- this isn't offtopic even though it proceeds from a thread that is.

dalnetuzer () yahoo com (John Obi) writes:
> ...
> It's about that "the FBI finally cares, and will bust
> the script kiddies."
>
> This will scare them and will decrease the DDoS
> attacks from now and on.

that's nonsequitur.  four times in the last two months, a "life flight"
helicopter has landed near where i live, to pick up some motorcyclist who
lost a race against oncoming traffic on this twisty mountain road, and
take them to stanford hospital for emergency care.  three new roadside
shrines tell the stories of those who did not survive that trip.  every
motorcyclist who socializes up at alice's restaurant knows all this, but
today i can still hear the pitched whine of wristrocket roadracers who
can't tell the difference between reality and a video game.

the FBI can add a thrill to the business, or even toughen up the low end
of the business, but the people doing ddos-for-hire are mostly teenagers
or twentysomethings who still believe, like many motorcyclists down on my
local highway, that they will live forever and that bad things only happen
to people less careful and less lucky than themselves.

however:

> So ISPs and NSPs should work more with FBI and such
> parties to decrease the DDoS.

this should absolutely be done, since toughening up the low end will have
good long term effects -- eventually we'll make ddos-for-hire into a high
end crime, and law enforcement will take it seriously enough to spend the
hundreds of millions of tax dollars (or rubles or whatever) needed to hire
and train and equip the gigantic staff of investigators needed to keep the
internet from collapsing in on itself from the weight of all this garbage.
-- 
Paul Vixie