CNN reports that hackers, perhaps from South Korea, attacked the systems that help direct traffic on the internet. The attacks took place at the beginning of February.
These root servers are part of the Domain Name System (DNS) which translate internet address like getsafeonline.org into the codes that the internet uses to send data to the right place.
There are thirteen heavily-protected root servers worldwide and the attacks were designed to saturate them with activitiy to degrade their performance, a so-called Denial of Service attack. Three of them were briefly overwhelmed, according to CNN.
However, the internet continued working as normal and experts rushed to defeat the attack. A previous attack in October 2002 crippled nine of the 13 root servers.
PS It’s interesting to note that CNN.com still capitalises the word ‘internet’ when all the cool kids - Wired, Get Safe Online etc. – use a lower case ‘i’.
Technorati Tags: CNN, DNS, DOS, FYI
