The Soap Box

Posts Tagged ‘Cyber Attacks’

Government web site’s,  including the White House’s site, have been subjected to denial of service attacks.

What are DOS attacks?  Ever try to access a web site right after the URL (site address) has been mentioned on TV?  Can’t connect?  The servers for the web site have been overwhelmed with traffic, and are denying service (access).  Hackers will infect hundreds, sometimes thousands, of personal computers with code instructing those computers to “visit” the web site under attack.  The sites servers can’t keep up with the traffic, and legitimate visitors are denied service.  DOS code runs in the background, and the owner of an infected computer will never know their computer has been hijacked except for a slow Internet connection.

The New York Stock Exchange web site is under attack as we speak, but trading has not been affected.

DOS attacks are annoying, but data theft is not the purpose of this type of cyber attack.

Do we have a White House Cyber Czar?  I heard President Obama was planning to appoint an Internet Czar to coordinate and plan Federal responses to cyber crime.  Coordination of the various branches of Federal Bureaucracy always works so well.

If you have been trying to log in to a government site -  save yourself some aggravation and wait til tomorrow.