The Grinch who stole e-Christmas

Rob Rosenberger, Vmyths co-founder
Saturday, 18 November 2000 "IT'S DÉJÀ VU all over again." ISS predicts über-hackers will destroy the Internet — this time during the Christmas shopping season.

ISS predicts über-hackers will destroy the Internet — this time during the Christmas shopping season.

Mind you, ISS continued to predict a Y2K virus disaster after Y2K viruses failed to materialize...

You might recall when ISS continued to predict a Y2K virus disaster after Y2K viruses failed to materialize. " 'Monday is the day,' agreed Michele Norwood, spokeswoman at Internet Security Systems... [But] 'so far, we have been pleasantly surprised. It's been relatively quiet,' she said Saturday, Jan. 1." NostradamISS came out the other day with brand-new predictions. "Hackers are planning to launch internet-based denial of service (DoS) attacks on web retailers over the Christmas period," VNUNET reporter John Leyden wrote. "Internet Security Systems (ISS) said that many hundreds of computers are infected with so-called zombie agents, which would allow hackers to commandeer the machines and cripple [retailers'] servers." Hundreds of computers? Infected with zombie agents? Poised to wipe out the Internet? NETSEC made the same prediction earlier this year, you know. It flopped. You could almost hear Leyden's heavy breathing as he slouched over the keyboard. "The company warned that only 10 per cent of online retailers are prepared to deal with attacks of this type." He quoted ISS comic book superhero Chris Rouland: "if you said 10 per cent were prepared, it would be a liberal estimate." Sounds like a great movie plot. Let's call it "The Grinch Who Stole e-Christmas."^[1] Newsbytes reporter Steve Gold also covered next month's catastrophe. His story, like Leyden's, limited itself to ISS fearmongering. "The attacks, if they occur, will take the form of distributed denial of service (DDOS) invasions, a hacker flooding technique used earlier this year" when Mafiaboy destroyed e-commerce. NostradamISS "advised that, while there is little that sites can do to prevent such attacks, companies can take steps to ease the pain... ISS has also advised organizations to establish links with local law enforcement authorities, so that, if an attack occurs, the appropriate people can be notified quickly."

This almost looks like — dare I say it? — "earned media exposure." You might know it better as a publicity stunt.

Notice the part about taking steps "to ease the pain." Gold's story makes an intriguing announcement:

In parallel with its warning of impending DDOS attacks this Christmas, ISS has teamed up with NOCpulse, a newly launched provider of outsourced Internet infrastructure management services, to deliver managed security services to customers... ISS says that NOCpulse customers will have access to key managed security services offerings as well as top notch security expertise. Mark Hangen, ISS' general manager of managed security services, said that NOCpulse represents a new breed of managed service provider (MSP) that can give companies the information they need to proactively manage their Internet infrastructure.

This almost looks like — dare I say it? — "earned media exposure." You might know it better as a publicity stunt. But hey, I could be wrong. NostradamISS only has to make one correct prediction about the death of the Internet. And they will predict it correctly, one of these days...