Root Server Attack!!!

February 2007

Hackers slow Internet root servers with attack

Online attackers have briefly disrupted service on at least two of the 13 "root" servers that are used to direct traffic on the Internet. The attack, which began Tuesday, February 6, at about 5:30 a.m. EST, was the most significant attack against the root servers since an October 2002 DdoS attack, said Ben Petro, senior vice president of services with Internet service provider Neustar. Root servers manage the Internet's DNS, used to translate Web addresses such as Amazon.com into the numerical IP addresses used by machines. The attack appeared to have been launched by a botnet, Petro said. "Two of the root servers suffered badly, although they did not completely crash; some of the others also saw heavy traffic," said John Crain, chief technical officer with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The two hardest_hit servers are maintained by the Department of Defense and ICANN. The botnet briefly overwhelmed these servers with useless requests, but did not disrupt Internet service, Petro said. By 10:30 a.m. EST, Internet service providers were able to filter enough of the traffic from the botnet machines that traffic to and from the root servers was essentially back to normal.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/02/06/HNrootserverattack _1.html