Apparently, no actual damage was done to the systems and the hackers' access was brief. But they "could clearly have done severe damage," says TruSecure analyst Russ Cooper. The amount of bandwidth they controlled "far exceeded" several hundred personal computers connected to the Internet via cable modems. . . .. Apparently, no actual damage was done to the systems and the hackers' access was brief. But they "could clearly have done severe damage," says TruSecure analyst Russ Cooper. The amount of bandwidth they controlled "far exceeded" several hundred personal computers connected to the Internet via cable modems. Hackers have gained access to supercomputers and large computer networks at numerous university and research organization facilities in the last few weeks. The infiltrations, which are still under investigation, temporarily gave the attackers sufficient computing power to attack large portions of the Internet. . Recent breaches in academic institutions exposed weaknesses in infrastructure. Cyber intruders might have caused major disruptions.. Cyber Attack Response, University Network Security, Hack Threat Analysis. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
"Why were universities so involved in these attacks? Because they're naked," said Stephen Northcutt, head of the SANS Institute's Global Incident Analysis Center in Bethesda, Md. "They're sitting out there on the Internet with no firewalls or anything." So naked are . . . . "Why were universities so involved in these attacks? Because they're naked," said Stephen Northcutt, head of the SANS Institute's Global Incident Analysis Center in Bethesda, Md. "They're sitting out there on the Internet with no firewalls or anything." So naked are many of these university computers that the problem caught the attention of Jeffrey Hunker, who was director of the critical infrastructure outreach program at the National Security Council (NSC) during the Clinton administration. "Universities were a major contributor to the DDOS attacks. They've always been a major contributor to security problems. This is clearly an area which I believe the [Bush] administration should tackle," Hunker said. The link for this article located at ComputerWorld is no longer available. . Michael Thompson highlighted the institutions' importance during the assaults, stressing their exposure and safety concerns.. University Security,Cyber Attack Risks,Firewall Issues. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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