Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 13:17:44 -0800
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---------Hacker shuts down chat network
IRC threatened by Romanian attack
By Will Knight
ZDNet UK
ZDNET
Jan. 9 =97 A Romanian hacker has launched a major distributed denial of=
service (DDoS) forcing one of the largest IRC (Internet Relay Chat)=
networks, Undernet, to shut down much of its service, system=
administrators said.
The attacks appear to be coming from hundreds of remote machines taken over=
by a single hacker based in Romania.
IRC IS ONE OF THE Internet=92s largest and best-established chat=
systems, predating such technologies as AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ. It=
has millions of users.
A number of Internet Service Providers hosting Undernet servers =97=
including some in the US, the Netherlands and France =97 have been hit=
with DDoS attacks.
One IRC server system administrator who spoke on the condition of=
anonymity, so that his servers would not become a target, said that the=
attacks appear to be coming from hundreds of remote machines taken over by=
a single hacker based in Romania. He also suggests that Romania lacks the=
legal infrastructure to deal with the attacks.
=93This is a big problem since the Romanian hackers community is=
very active,=94 he says. =93We don=92t want to close IRC, but there is=
truly a lack of interest from the authorities about it, which is not the=
case for the streets, where they are pretty active.=94
Undernet issued a statement on its Web site Sunday suggesting that the=
situation threatens the existence of its IRC service. =93To put it simply,=
we cannot provide you with a free and stable IRC service if that means the=
companies providing that service must continually suffer the loss of=
customers and revenue, the cost is simply too great. This ongoing problem=
threatens the existence of IRC as one of the =91classic=92 Internet=
services,=94 reads the statement.
A DDoS attack involves bombarding a server with a tidal wave of data=
from many different hacked machines at many different locations. According=
to Undernet, some ISPs have been bombarded with 100MB of data per second.
Richard Stagg, senior securtity architect with security firm IRM=
says that this type of attack is especially nasty. =93Distributed attacks=
are the most dangerous sort of denial of service attacks because they are=
very hard to shut down, especially in coutries that don=92t have the legal=
infrastructure,=94 he says.
Stagg says it is fairly simple to write a script that will allow IRC=
servers to be targeted. He agrees that this situation shows the need for=
greater cooperation between international law enforcement agencies.
Another system administrator who also spoke on condition of=
anonymity said that the attacks were likely to be the result of some IRC=
channel feud.
Undernet is one of the largest IRC networks in the world with 45=
servers in 35 countries connecting over 100,000 different people every=
week.
=A9 2001 ZD Inc. All Rights Reserved. ZDNet and ZDNet logo are registered=
trademarks of ZD Inc. =A9 2000 Ziff Davis Media. All Rights Reserved.
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