The Hackers Are Out There
UFO Buffs Flock to Hacked Web Site
By Martha Waggoner
The Associated Press
R A L E I G H, N.C., April 20 A hacker disrupted service for 36 hours at
the Web site that published satellite images of Area 51, the top-secret Air
Force test site in Nevada that has fascinated UFO and conspiracy theorists
for decades.
The attack, combined with traffic 10 times what the site usually bears,
meant millions of people had difficulty accessing the site or could not
connect with it at all, the company said today.
Did the attack come from outer space? From the U.S. military? Or a
bored computer geek? The company wouldn'tt say today, citing an ongoing
investigation.
The site, www.terraserver.com, was running today, although some delays
were possible.
I wont tell you its completely solved, said John Hoffman, president
of Raleigh-based Aerial Images Inc., which owns and operates the site. We
ve taken steps to mitigate its effect. Its almost a fact of being online
these days.
Attack Just Before Unveiling
The attack began within six hours of when images of the 8,000-square-mile
Area 51, home to Groom Dry Lake Air Force Base, became available at 8 p.m.
Monday, Hoffman said.
The site is averaging 7 million to 8 million page views per day;
typically, it averages 700,000 to 800,000. Aerial Images had expected from 3
million to 5 million daily views after the Area 51 images were posted.
As you can imagine, it takes a while to figure it out when youve got
that huge volume of traffic, Hoffman said. Sorting it out is challenging.
Another Denial of Service?
Hoffman declined to provide details of the attack. But John Pike of the
Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C., said he would guess
the attack was an external denial of service, like the one that happened to
yahoo.com a few months ago, and not from someone who gained access to the
server.
If you assume its a denial-of-service attack, and youre getting a
lot of traffic, it can be difficult to figure out if its all from
legitimate users or if some significant chunk is from a machine set up to
specifically overload your server, said Pike, the federations Webmaster.
The release of the images stirred up great interest in the base, which
the Air Force only recently acknowledged even existed. The base is 75 miles
northwest of Las Vegas, in the arid, rugged Nellis Range. Its Area 51
nickname comes from its designation on old Nevada test site maps.
Beginning with the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s, the base has been the
testing ground for top-secret aircraft, including the SR-71 Blackbird and,
more recently, the F-117A stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber.
Aircraft are not allowed to fly over the base, but satellite over
flights are allowed as part of an agreement to verify arms-control
compliance.
--
Everything on this earth has a purpose, and every disease an herb to
cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of
existence. --Mourning Dove, 1888-1936
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