Denial of Service attacks on web sites continue to spread

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on major web sites continued today, with new attacks on E*Trade and ZDNet (see this New York Times article): "The Justice Department pledged to find those responsible, but computer experts questioned whether any defenses could easily be deployed against the attacks. On the third day of what increasingly appeared to be a well-planned and tightly coordinated siege by a single individual or group, the impact of the attacks deepened. In addition to damaging commerce at the sites that have become targets, the attacks slowed traffic in some portions of the Internet." So far, these attacks are directed at large web sites typically running on UNIX servers, so most MacFixIt readers need not worry about being the victim of one of these attacks. However, if you do run a UNIX-based web site, check out this web page for advice. As for the Mac, as reported previously, Open Transport 2.6 "prevents Macintosh computers from being used in certain types of Denial of Service (DoS) issues." So upgrading to Mac OS 9 and OT 2.6 would be advised. Finally, using an Internet security program such as NetBarrier (check out its Antivandal options) can also help.