Hoards Of Zombies Could Bring Down The Net

The US government reportedly fears that tens of
thousands of computer systems may have been turned into
"zombies" waiting for commands from hackers to cripple the
Internet.

A report by United Press International said a top National
Security Council analyst, Richard Clark, special assistant to
the president for trans-national threats, said the explosion of
zombies makes it possible for hackers to launch an assault that
would make last February's denial-of-service attacks look
"fairly minor." The proliferation of digital subscriber lines
and cable modems means that more computers are "hard
wired" to the Web, making hacker access easier, UPI added.

The report said unsuspecting users continue to operate their
computers in a normal way. But, a vast number of computers may
now contain a software time bomb which could launch dedicated
denial of service (DDOS) attacks to bring down computer networks
by overwhelming them with more traffic than they can process.
NSC reportedly believes hackers may have hidden DDOS "packets"
or "daemons" in the computer systems of unwitting users. At a
specific time, or after receiving a signal from the hacker,
hundreds of zombies would launch against a single target, UPI
said.

Last February, multiple zombies flooded high-profile commerce
sites such as E-Bay and CNN.com with messages that overloaded
systems and caused some to shut down for several days.

A 16-year-old Montrealer known as Mafiaboy is a suspect in
that attack. He will be tried in March.