AXENT Security Expert Available to Explain Denial of Service Attacks Used in Yahoo! Hack.

Business/Technology Editors

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

Yesterday's attack on Yahoo!, the most popular Web site on the Internet, has sent numerous companies scrambling to evaluate their own security. Yahoo! has significant security in place, however hackers were still able to overwhelm the site using common denial of service (DoS) electronic attacks.

The tools, such as TrinOO and Tribe Flood Network, are distributed DoS tools that coordinate attacks carried out by rogue programs maliciously installed on compromised systems. These powerful DoS attacks use several compromised systems to launch an attack against a single target. DoS attacks bring down unprotected networks by flooding them with large amounts of traffic. A DoS attack can cause a severe negative impact for e-businesses, driving traffic to competitor's sites.

There have been numerous reports of intruders utilizing denial of service (DoS) tools that provide a distributed means to attack systems from multiple network sources--Yahoo! is merely the latest in a group of victims that even includes the FBI. Internet sites and dot.com companies are particularly vulnerable to such attacks, as even small amounts of downtime can result in huge revenue losses as customers leave Web sites or switch to a competitor with just a click of the mouse (sometimes never to return). A recent analyst report from Zona Research explained that the average Web buyer will only wait about eight seconds for a page to download, estimating that unacceptable download times may have resulted in the loss of up to $4.35 billion in U.S. e-commerce sales in 1999.

Scott Gordon, Director of Intrusion Detection at AXENT, is available to talk about how these DoS attacks work, from TrinOO and Tribe to Stacheldraht. AXENT is one of the world's leading e-security solution providers for e-business, and has experience securing many of the highest-traffic sites on the Internet, including 45 of the Fortune 50 and governments worldwide. Gordon is familiar with DoS attacks and can explain how they work and how today's businesses can best protect themselves against such electronic attacks.

If you are interested in speaking to Scott Gordon about the attack on Yahoo!, DoS attacks, intrusion detection, or solutions to protect against such hacks, please call Mike Schultz or Dan Ring at Schwartz Communications, [phone] or [e-mail].

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