Lycos Europe's zombie campaign downs two sites

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Next Step ... Generalize MLNS !

Next Step ... Generalize MLNS !
Lycos should be applauded for giving
the rest of us an EFFECTIVE way of
fighting back. Let's face it, spammers
have found enough spam friendly countries
so that ordinary attempts to deal with
them fall on deaf ISP ears.

If the reports of MLNS's current problems
are correct (either it's become too popular
or it is the subject of a DDOS attack),
then the obvious next step is to
generalize MLNS's functionality.

Instead of going to a Lycos server
for known SPAM sites, we need a version
that keeps SPAM sites locally. A list which
can be created &/or updated by the end user. Personally, I don't think I'll have any problem
identifying which of the hundreds of SPAM emails
I get daily are actually SPAM !
Give me a way to tag or send them from
my mailer to MLNS & I'll gladly turn
my PCs loose on the SPAM bastards !

This appoach also solves the legal problems ...
WRT DDOS being illegal, since each person
would be responsible for determining which
sites to hit (from their own machine) and since
a single machine cannot generate enough
traffic to even come close to being
labelled a DOS attack, there is no
culpability on the part of any individual
using a stand alone MLNS applet.
Granted, enough installed users could end up
bringing any number of sites down, but a DDOS
is defined as a coordinated effort to disrupt
a site. In this case it would be the
independent action of thousands or millions
of individuals !

On the other hand, what if SPAMMERs got a
hold of this tool and started using it to attack
legitimate sites with their bot networks.
I suppose some kind of filtering could
be included; but then again who would the
SPAMMERs attack ? Lycos ? In addition,
such an attack would not be profitable and
would chew up bot bandwidth. Since the bandwidth
is currently used to generate SPAM, which
apparently does make money (for the moment),
using it for a non-income generating purpose
would make little sense. Not to mention that
SPAMMERs already have tools which they already
use to try and extort money from legitimate
sites by threatening DDOS attacks and then
carrying them out on the sites that don't pay.
So, I'm guessing that MLNS is probably a lot
less effective than their current resources.

Probably many more implications for this.

Thoughts ?

Posted by: brada_z   Posted on: 12/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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