Motivation and Good Sense

While many reasons or rationalizations exist that an individual or group of individuals might choose to launch a form of DoS attack on a network, one thing common to many attacks is anger. Real or imagined, the attacker blames the site, the owners of the site, or the users of the site for some slight, injustice, or wrong doing. Add to this the apparent anonymity the attacker enjoys, and it’s generally a no-win situation to provoke or even incur the interest of these individuals needlessly. The size and scope of the Internet means your site can literally fall prey to a “sniper” 12,000 miles way.

Attackers typically have the time, and the cost to them is close to zero. The target is in the opposite position: once the attacks begin, time is virtually nonexistent. The costs, direct and in lost business or reputation, start to soar. Be well aware that no Internet Police Department or anyone else is going to handle this for you.

Don’t make yourself a target. Practice good security measures and involve law enforcement in all criminal acts, but be forewarned that personal attacks and even belittling statements like script kiddies might precipitate a career of fighting these attacks. Sometimes, even protective security measures as a result of an attack within your network might escalate the attack.

Time isn’t as universal as many of us think. When a network is under attack and the administrator has brought in all the high-priced talent, added new technologies, and possibly even lined up law enforcement, it’s common to want the attack to continue long enough to identify and catch the attacker. Remember, other than anger or adrenalin, the hacker has nothing invested and could recognize they can even cause greater losses by being unpredictable. In most cases, the worst that can happen is that the hacker gets locked out.