Lycos on Tuesday kicked off its "make love not spam" campaign by offering users a screensaver that helps to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on spammers' Web sites. The company said the screensaver uses the idle processing power of a computer to slow down the response times from spammers' Web sites – much in the same way spammers use compromised PCs to distribute unsolicited e-mail messages.
However, within hours of the makelovenotspam.com site being launched, the original front page was replaced with a simple message:
"Yes, attacking spammers is wrong. You know this, you shouldn’t be doing it. Your IP address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action."
Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure, which advised users not to participate in Lycos’s campaign because of "possible legal problems", suspects the site has been hacked by a pro-spam group because "they definitely would have a motive to attack the site".
F-Secure reported that the Web site had returned to normal by around 6am (Sydney time) but at the time of writing makelovenotspam.com is unavailable and could be under a retaliatory DDoS attack.
Earlier this year, Symbiot, a Texas-based security firm launched a corporate defence system that was designed to fight back against DDoS and hacker attacks by launching a counter-strike.
At the time, Symbiot's president Mike Erwin said that "totally passive" defences were "not an adequate deterrent" and argued that for complete defence an "offensive tactic must be employed".
Security experts were alarmed at the company’s attitude and warned that such tactics could be counterproductive.
Jay Heiser, chief analyst at IT risk management company TruSecure, said Symbiot’s proposal was a very bad criterion for choosing risk-reduction measures.
"There is no evidence that this is the most effective way to deal with the problems and there is quite a bit of historical precedence that indicates it is totally counterproductive," said Heiser.
Lycos was unavailable for comment.
ZDNet UK’s Dan Ilett contributed to this report
N'uff talk. Didn't work. Let the war begin. About time the people had a weapon. Thank you Lycos!