Internal security comes first
In addition, many sites consider internal security to be a priority. "To be honest, we know we're vulnerable, but we worry more about people opening e-mail viruses and things like that than we do about DDoS attacks," said a network administrator at Viacom, who requested anonymity. "We don't get a lot of revenue from the Web sites, so it's more of a problem if our internal network is shut down."
kers count on that lack of vigilance by administrators, knowing their attack will be well under way before it's detected. And, as shown by the fact that last year's attacks took place over several days, they also know that administrators have no way to share information with one another in a crisis situation.
help remedy that situation, the U.S. Department of Commerce and 19 high-tech companies this week established the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Centre. The centre is designed to enable industry leaders and the government to share resources and information before, during and after catastrophic hacks.
Can anything else be done? A Seattle startup has what it thinks is one answer. Asta Networks will unveil later this year new software that monitors a network, looking for specific traffic signatures that are indicative of a DDoS attack.
But even with this type of solution, the real backbone of any network security system should be constant monitoring, said Lance Hayden, manager of secure consulting services at Cisco Systems.
"Proactive vulnerability assessment is the key," Hayden said.
