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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.
Copyright ⌐ 1996 CNET Inc. All rights reserved.