Slashdot Mirror
40-Gbps DDoS Attacks Worry Even Tier-1 ISPs
sturgeon and other readers let us know that Arbor Networks has released their annual survey of tier-1 / tier-2 ISP security engineers. This year they got responses from 70 lead engineers. While DDoS attacks are reaching new heights of backbone-crushing traffic — 40 Gbps was seen this past year — the insiders are also worried about emerging threats to DNS and BGP. The summary notes that "Most believe that the DNS cache poisoning flaw disclosed earlier this year was poorly handled and increased the danger of the threat," but doesn't spell out what a better way of handling it might have been. All in all, the ISPs sound a bit pessimistic — one says "fewer resources, less management support, and increased workload." You can request the full PDF report here, but it will cost you contact information. In related news, an anonymous reader passes along a survey by Secure Computing of 199 international security experts and other "industry insiders" from utilities, oil and gas, financial services, government, telecommunications, transportation and other critical infrastructure industries. They are worried too.
You assume the people in Congress care about the Joe the Plumbers of the world with no money and no job instead of the wealthy Wall Street contributors. Who's going to make sure that filthy lucre flows into the machine coffers and the re-election funds? Certainly not Joe who has no job, no healthcare, and no future. So take the tribute that your citizens pay you in income taxes and give it to your Wall Street friends who, like all good money launderers, will take some off the top and return the rest in kickbacks, fact-finding mission funds, and contributions to political campaigns. All-American graft at its finest.
You know the part about the Electric Company is funny and ignorant. In California they "Deregulated" the industry. But they didn't really deregulate it because their plan failed and they shot themselves in the foot. By "they" I mean the Grey Davis government. So Southern California Edison has been trying for a long time to upgrade the high voltage lines that lead out of state to other power suppliers. The problem is they have to get on their knees and ask pretty please to the California Public Utility Commission for a 1% increase in power rates and then they get denied. So where are they supposed to get the money if they can't raise it through rates? Oh, and they barely make a profit now and they were losing money before because of Gay Davis (no I didn't misspell that).