Jiggy-Ninja said:
I'm usually pretty good at that sort of thing. Analogy and visualization (and always keeping in mind the limits of those) have been my main modes of thinking for years.
Clown analogy doesn't seems right. A DoS attack isn't trying to gain entry, it's just trying to overload the listener. It'd be more like a celebrity getting mobbed by 10,000 people all asking for an autograph constantly. Wouldn't be able to get anything done in a state like that.
Now I'm curious. Why "former"? Did you get out of network administration, get promoted so you no longer have to deal with that stuff, or what?
The analogy works either way; the idea is to demonstrate the notion of overwhelming force; your's is better in explaining the extreme noise-signal effect caused by a DDOS. Still, don't underestimate them, just because Greg knows his stuff, doesn't mean some of those packets aren't malicious beyond "noise".
As for former, yet, I was in it and I left because of the rise of the script-kiddy. I saw the landscape change from a few people using what they could, exploiting large companies (not right, but I was young) and the like. That turned into getting a few computers to become scanners of multiple subnets to find new computers... rinse, repeat. Money started to come into the equation, and that was never something I wanted to be a part of.
Dalnet falling to some anonymous Turkish botnet was nearly the final straw, and once I'd reformed the people I cared about in a new network, I handed over the reigns to a friend and never looked back.
Jiggy-Ninja said:
Why do you say they aren't effective? It may not be the most efficient or elegant means of attack, but this thread alone should be proof that it's effective at something.
Oh, they can be effective, but you need to match your attack to your target! A forum is a very soft target, with new ways to undermine them available to those who want them... this is crude. Moreover, the site remained in operation, even if slowed, and proper DDOS doesn't allow that.
This has all of the hallmarks of an angry child abusing random people and companies, driving up the cost of hosting and throughput, and not even achieving the desired goal.
Either:
...Or buzz off and get a life. I may not like the former much of the time, but at least I understand and appreciate result. A script kiddy is like a rat, and only thrives because of numbers and the use of resources they are only able to gather because of the largesses of others.
)
I just knew it; you are an expert on network layers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_layer_protocol" !
