An attempt to shut down the internet by distributed denial of
service attacks against all 13 root servers that manage global
internet traffic has failed. The attack, launched on Monday at
around 10pm GMT, was characterised as "the largest and most complex
ever" against the root server system, according to media
reports.
Denial of service attacks are done by individuals flooding a web
server with false and untraceable requests for information,
overwhelming the system and ultimately crashing it. A distributed
denial of service attack is where the attack is launched from
several computers, usually without the computer owners being aware
that their machines are being used in this way.
The 13 core servers are the "address book" of the internet's
domain name system, which matches web addresses with computers'
numerical codes and directs e-mail and other internet traffic to
its destination. Internet traffic is normally managed by local
servers, but if a domain is not found, the root servers are
consulted.
It appears that Monday's attack lasted for about an hour.
Although seven of the 13 servers failed to respond to 'legitimate'
traffic, internet users worldwide were largely unaffected.
According to media reports, the servers worst affected were
those operated by ICANN and the US Department of Defence
Information Center.
The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center said that it
was aware of the attack and that it is addressing the matter.
