Open-Source Security

T he Internet provides a wealth of information,convenience, and value to its users, but this acces-sibility makes it extremely vulnerable to moti-vated and well-equipped users intent on disrupt-ing the flow of information or using it for personal gain. The tools for disruption are readily available to these In-ternet attackers, ranging from published operating-sys-tem weaknesses to executable software ready to exploit such vulnerabilities. A common form of attack is denial of service (DoS). DoS attacks consume a remote host or net-work’s resources, thereby denying or degrading ser-vice to legitimate users. Typically, adversaries con-duct DoS attacks by flooding the target network and its computers with a large amount of traffic from one or (as in the case of distributed DoS, called DDoS) more computers under the attacker’s control. Such attacks are among the toughest to address becaus