[H-GEN] on a serious note

[Raymond Smith]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and  ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.           ]
[ Worthwhile understanding: http://www.humbug.org.au/netiquette.html ]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Tony Bilbrough wrote:
> Yes I wondered when this would 'get out into the open'! As one of the
> more ignorant among you, I will be very interested in what you
> "Masters of Linux" have to say about these Zombies and the easy with
> which they seem to penetrate cable networks!

Broadband to home has introduced a whole new pool of well connected,
poorly defend hosts. This must be music to the ears of those who wish to
launch DDOS attacks. And DDOS attacks are scary and difficult to defeat.

However, I think the grc.com article is typical 'Death of the Internet'
stuff -- especially his apparent cursade against raw sockets in Windows
XP. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/ for a counter arguement. In fact,
Windows XP will include a decently configured firewall (no incomming
connections) for broadband connections. If the firewall works, this will
help defend against these sorts of attack bots.

As an aside, I must say I thought the use of IRC as a bot-coordination
method was cool. It is amazing that someone has found something useful to
do with IRC :-)

Cheers,

Raymond
---
raymond at humbug.org.au                     All that we see, or seem,
                                    Is but a dream, within a dream.
                                           -- Edgar Allan Poe


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