Hackers overwhelm key Web computers

Attack is one of the most significant against the Internet since 2002

By Ted Bridis
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:01 p.m. CT Feb 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002.

Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted for hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines.

Experts said the hackers appeared to disguise their origin, but vast amounts of rogue data in the attacks were traced to South Korea.
The attacks appeared to target UltraDNS, the company that operates servers managing traffic for Web sites ending in "org" and some other suffixes, experts said. Company officials did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Among the targeted "root" servers that manage global Internet traffic were ones operated by the Defense Department and the Internet's primary oversight body.

"There was what appears to be some form of attack during the night hours here in California and into the morning," said John Crain, chief technical officer for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. He said the attack was continuing and so was the hunt for its origin.

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Although the news clip said it was over briefly, at about 05:00 this morning the web traffic report showed 8 (of 50) US servers and I believe 3 or the half dozen Euro ones offline.

This doesn't mean the 'cat wasn't off for other reasons, but the "whole net" seemed a bit sluggish all night last night.

John