Visual DDoS Representation and Its Ramifications

winterbc writes "Prolexic has a report on Zombie infections that bring a visual representation of a DDoS attack. Besides being a rather cool picture, it brings to mind a possible future of personal computing. I would love to see a real-time picture of my 'net connections as my desktop picture, allowing me to change my 'net habits based on what I see. For example, I can download new images from the OPTE Project and set my desktop that way, but a more individual pathway highlighted with my favorite color could happen someday. My point is that while DDoS are painfully ubiquitous today, tomorrow visual mapping in real-time could be a path to the source of the problem."

Comments

In the future will we have net traffic reports?

[rokzy]

I hope not!

isn't the whole point that there's redundancy and stuff to make things reliable and invisible to the end user?

time spent visualising problems is a total waste unless you use it to stop the problem happening again. and prevention is better than cure.

Re:Relevant info missing

[trelanexiph]

I've seen dosnets on IRIX, Linux, SCO Unix/Openserver, and Solaris. Windows users are not the only ones running infections. Ooh yeah, the guys hitting unix are usually far more skilled than those using cookie cutter exploits to mass-infect windows machines, meaning that though they don't hit harder, they may hit smarter.

Re:And what is being done about this?

[Kent Recal]

what can we do after we've detected them?
we often know who they are, and even where they live

Easy. Make a public list.
Put up a description of all incidents and all related information (IP-Address -> ISP -> personal info) that you have gathered.

The kids don't like to read their real name on a website.