Economics of flooding

Wed Apr 3 02:16:21 UTC 2002

On Tue, Apr 02, 2002, Livio Ricciulli wrote:
> 
> Hi, we are doing research on the economics of flooding attacks and we 
> have a few questions;
> help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Is anyone aware of a process for claiming a deduction in charges when 
> fees are associated with a
> flooding attack? 

*blink* deduction?

> In particular, attacks may push up the 95% usage or (more commonly) 
> attacks may create prolonged
> loss of network availability;  Both outcomes may result in a claim for 
> deduction.

There's two things to look at:

* flood doesn't impact much on your upstream provider, but kills your
  port
* flood impacts upstream's gear, affecting more customers than you

In the first case, you'll be hard pressed to find a large provider
that'll help you out. You're better off picking someone a little
smaller than your uunet - you may have a better chance.

In the second case, you might find that your contract allows them
to pull your connection if its affecting their customers somehow.
In any case, you'll find them quick to respond - maybe they're able
to find the source of the DoS attack (into their network) and quash
it - or maybe they determine that the irc server or shell box you're
running just isn't worth the hassle and turns you off.

Another reply to this post referenced warez and the like - damn,
what ever happened to taking responsibility of your own servers?

Adrian

-- 
Adrian Chadd			"For a sucessful technology, reality must
<adrian at creative.net.au>	  take precedence over public relations,
				    for nature cannot be fooled" - Feynmann