FINAL WORD
Bryan Hamman,
Territory Manager for
sub-Saharan Africa
at Arbor Networks,
reflects on how DDoS
attacks have moved
from notoriety to
monetisation.
Twenty years of DDoS attacks –
looking back, looking forward
D
istributed denial of service
(DDoS) attacks are more popular
and dangerous today than
at any time in history. In 20 years,
DDoS attacks have gone from being
a novelty to a nuisance, and finally
today they represent a serious threat
against the availability and functionality
of websites, online services and
applications.
This is according to Arbor Network’s
Territory Manager for sub-Saharan
Africa, Bryan Hamman, who says, “Easy
to use tools and cheap attack services
have widened the potential net that
DDoS attacks can cast. Today, anyone
with a grievance and an Internet
www.intelligentcio.com
connection can launch an attack. If
we take a look back about 20 years
or so, historic news headlines and the
increasing size of attacks through the
years indicate that this problem isn’t
going to go away.”
Looking back at some of the attacks
down the years:
• 1996: Internet service provider (ISP)
Panix is struck by a sustained DDoS
attack, affecting businesses that use
Panix as their ISP.
• 1996: CERT/CC – the Computer
Emergency Response Team/
Coordination Center, a government-
funded research and development
“We’ve also seen
instances when
DDoS attacks
are used as a
smokescreen to
camouflage or draw
attention away
from other criminal
activity an attacker
might be doing.”
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