ISPs 'should be responsible' for hacker attacks

Monday, 13 November 2006, 12:53 AM EST

ISPs should be made legally liable for the damage caused by DoS attacks carried out via their networks, a leading internet lawyer says.

A DoS attack involves taking down a website or server by flooding it with meaningless traffic, usually sent from a network of tens of thousands of PCs infected with viruses and controlled remotely. These viral "bots" do nothing until a hacker sends a command that tells them to attack a target, but can also be used to relay millions of spam email messages.

At New Scientist.

[ Read more ]