The challenge for successful public Web sites is to encourage access to the site, while eliminating undesirable or malicious traffic, and providing the necessary levels of sufficient security without creating constraining site limitations in performance or scalability. Disruption of service caused . . .
The challenge for successful public Web sites is to encourage access to the site, while eliminating undesirable or malicious traffic, and providing the necessary levels of sufficient security without creating constraining site limitations in performance or scalability. Disruption of service caused by denial of service (DoS) attacks is the "kiss of death" for Web-driven enterprises such as portals and e-commerce sites. The "1999 Computer Crime and Security Survey" found system penetration by outsiders increased for the third year in a row with 30% of respondents reporting intrusions. Those reporting their Internet connection as a frequent point of attack rose for the third straight year, from 37% of respondents in 1996 to 57% in 1999.

Preventing DOS attacks is critical for most Web sites. These attacks are specifically designed to bring down a Web site using methods that appear to be normal network traffic - until it is too late. Web site administrators have used packet filtering in their IP routers to provide basic access control, but often this slows router performance to an unacceptable point and fails to eliminate many common types of DOS attacks.

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