Two new software programs are said to be lined up for a bnig workout during the Y2K rollover: they're designed to overload computer systems with requests for information, APBNews.com says.
The news service says some experts fear computer vandals will use any Y2K confusion to launch such attacks and cause as much disruption as possible. And once computer systems get flooded with information requests from hundreds, even thousands, of other computers at once, APBNews says, they'll degrade and in due course stop accepting requests - cutting off access to legitimate computer users.
The software are called Trinoo and Tribal Flood Network, launching denial of service (DOS) attacks, and APBNews says they're starting to make the Internet rounds. The Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University tells APBNews these programs are unique because they can set off multiple attacks on a system, rather than one attack from a lone computer.
APBNews says vandals who want to cause disruptions install the programs secretly on computers to which they have access, giving a command that triggers the infected computers to strike by sending messages or requests to the targeted computer. The infected computer won't be damaged, APBNews says; it merely acts as a host to take aim at another computer.
And networked computer systems are especially vulnerable to overload and destructive attacks, APBNews continues, as well as other types of DOS attacks.
It's not that they're entirely guaranteed to happen, computer security officials tell APBNews, but they don't know what to expect with the Y2K rollover and are warning network operators to be aware of the two programs and what they can do.
The editor of Hacker News Network (www.hackernews.com), a Web site devoted to information and advisories about hacking and cracking, tells APBNews Trinoo and TFN let a hacker use numerous machines to launch a coordinated attack, which does two things.
"First," says the editor, known only as Space Rogue, "it allows a major increase in the number of requests that can be sent, and it makes it difficult for detection software to immediately weed out the sources of all the requests and shut them down." But Space Rogue also tells APBNews the software isn't used too often but that might change as its availability spreads.
"This software has been around for some time, and, yes, there have been reports of its use, but we have not seen systematic widespread use yet," he tells the news service. "As these tools becomes more popular and reach the hands of more and more evildoers, we may indeed see an increase in their use."
He says they won't destroy data but they will cause jams and crashes which mean lost revenues for e-commerce sites.
