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Cyhist Sep. 23 1997 c
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========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 13:15:46 -0400
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Erik Ray <eray@ORA.COM>
Subject: Re: CM> Understanding SPAM
In-Reply-To: <199709231622.JAA22199@rock.west.ora.com> (pundit@VNET.IBM.COM)
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
| Is there a difference re. SPAM, or at least a set of descriptive adjectives | to differentiate, between thoughtless mass-mailings (as in the Dec Salesman), | vicious mass marketing and malicious jamming?
This is referred to as a "denial of service" attack. Specifically, it falls under the category of "overload attack". There have been famous incidents of overload attacks, such as the "Internet Worm" that exploited a bug in sendmail to start processes on other people's machines. In that case, the overload was caused by rapidly multiplying the number of processes running until the system's resources were maxed out. Another example is the attack of an ISP in New York last year. The technique was called "SYN flooding". They sent lots of forged TCP/IP packets from seemingly random sources, so many that it effectively cut off the system from the outside world.
This is explained in more detail in the book "Web Security and Commerce" by Simson Garfinkle and Gene Spafford.
--
Erik Ray Web Site Administrator
O'Reilly & Associates Cambridge, MA
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Erik Ray <eray@ORA.COM>
Subject: Re: CM> Understanding SPAM
In-Reply-To: <199709231622.JAA22199@rock.west.ora.com> (pundit@VNET.IBM.COM)
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
| Is there a difference re. SPAM, or at least a set of descriptive adjectives | to differentiate, between thoughtless mass-mailings (as in the Dec Salesman), | vicious mass marketing and malicious jamming?
This is referred to as a "denial of service" attack. Specifically, it falls under the category of "overload attack". There have been famous incidents of overload attacks, such as the "Internet Worm" that exploited a bug in sendmail to start processes on other people's machines. In that case, the overload was caused by rapidly multiplying the number of processes running until the system's resources were maxed out. Another example is the attack of an ISP in New York last year. The technique was called "SYN flooding". They sent lots of forged TCP/IP packets from seemingly random sources, so many that it effectively cut off the system from the outside world.
This is explained in more detail in the book "Web Security and Commerce" by Simson Garfinkle and Gene Spafford.
--
Erik Ray Web Site Administrator
O'Reilly & Associates Cambridge, MA
______________________________________________________________________
