Hacker bombardment keeps site in check 
By Janet Kornblum
September 16, 1996, 6:30 p.m. PT 

                         Using the same kind of attack that shut
                down the New York-based Panix Internet service
                last week, computer hackers are bombarding at
                least two online chess sites, CNET learned today. 

                The hackers began their assault Thursday, using an
                attack known as a "SYN flood," which is basically
                a series of connection requests. They stopped
                over the weekend, but launched it again today,
                said Daniel Sleator, a computer science professor
                at Carnegie Mellon University and president of the
                Internet Chess Club, a subscription-based chess
                service. 

                This kind of attack is becoming more
                commonplace, worrying Internet providers and
                users alike. Hacker publications even have
                published "how-to" guides on the technique, which
                exploits a basic weakness in the Internet's
                architecture. 

                "This is not a tough thing to do," one online chess
                club subscriber said today. "That's part of the
                problem." 

                With a SYN flood attack, hackers don't actually
                get into the system. Instead, they send out a flood
                of bogus connection requests that clog the system
                and prevent real users from getting on. To use an
                analogy, the hackers basically block the front
                door, Sleator said. 

                Hackers shut down the Internet Chess Club for 20
                hours Thursday and Friday and had shut it down
                again for six to seven hours today before Sleator
                temporarily foiled the hack, he said. 

                Sleator said the service has received "thousands of
                complaints, continuous complaints. Thousands of
                people want to use the service and they can't." 

                Hackers also attacked the Free Internet Chess
                Server on Friday, Sleator said. 

                Stopping the attack can be difficult. Sleator had
                tried the same methods as Panix to stop the
                attacks, but they didn't work for the chess club.
                Instead, he temporarily outfoxed the hackers
                tonight by essentially creating 100 doors for
                Internet Chess Club members to use instead of
                two. 

                Now he has to inform all the users to change the
                way they get into the club, which is "quite
                inconvenient." 

                Why, anyone would attack online chess services is
                anyone's guess. "I can only speculate," Sleator
                said. "There are a number of possible reasons." It
                could be in retaliation for charging a membership
                fee, he said. "We're one of the first sites on the
                Internet to charge fees," Sleator said. "We started
                charging $49 a year back in March 1995 and that
                created a lot of animosity. 

                It could be someone who has a vendetta against
                the site, such as an angry member booted off for
                using offensive language. 

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