The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack that knocked out Yahoo used a host of hacked servers--dubbed "slaves" or "zombies"--to inundate a Web site or Internet-connected server with data, effectively stopping the server's ability to respond to Web page requests or . . .
The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack that knocked out Yahoo used a host of hacked servers--dubbed "slaves" or "zombies"--to inundate a Web site or Internet-connected server with data, effectively stopping the server's ability to respond to Web page requests or other access attempts. The attack could not be easily pinpointed, as data seemingly came from 50 or more points across the Internet. Simple DoS (denial of service) attacks only come from one source, though attackers can make data appear to come from multiple sources.

Two days later, eBay, Amazon.com, Buy.com, ZDNet, CNN.com, E*Trade and MSN.com joined Yahoo, dropping off the Web for hours at a time. The attacks affected other sites as well. Overall, Internet traffic slowed by as much to 26 percent, according to Net performance watcher Keynote Systems.

The link for this article located at News.com is no longer available.