DDoS attacks

Thu Jul 12 16:40:19 UTC 2001

Jon O. writes:

> There is quite a bit of helplessness and inaction going on when it
> comes to these types of situations and BIG ISP can get away with
> whatever they want.

Sooner or later, this is going to end up in civil litigation, and
unfortunate as that will be, it may help throttle these attacks a bit.
When a small ISP is taken down for days at a time due to a DDoS attack,
and a significant portion of the attack comes from one big ISP, and the
big ISP is unwilling to take any action to slow or stop the attack,
the small ISP has a credible claim for damages against the big ISP.
If a pattern of gross negligence could be shown, punitive damages could
potentially be a multiple of actual damages.

Jim Shankland