[fwd] Cracker Attack Paralyzes Panix

Fri Sep 13 02:15:32 UTC 1996

FYI: Edupage excerpt of a WSJ article.

- paul

>Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 17:18:14 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Edupage Editors <educom at elanor.oit.unc.edu>
>To: "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" <edupage at elanor.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: Edupage, 12 September 1996

>
>CRACKER ATTACK PARALYZES PANIX
>Repeated attacks by a computer cracker have virtually shut down New York's
>Public Access Networks Corp., better known as Panix.  The attacks have
>overwhelmed the computers' capacity to respond to requests for an
>"electronic handshake" by sending as many as 150 bogus requests a second.
>"This is the first major attack of a kind that I believe to be the final
>Internet security problem," says a Lucent Technologies Internet security
>expert, who says he "has been waiting" for just such an event.  Internet
>computers have no quick way of distinguishing these bogus requests from real
>ones, and even when security software is upgraded to ease the problem, the
>crackers could respond with even more intense assaults.  "There's going to
>be the usual arms race," predicts the Lucent security expert, between
>improved security measures and crackers' ability to disable them.  (Wall
>Street Journal 12 Sep B1)
>