FBI seeks Web vandals

February 9, 2000
Web posted at: 1:11 PM EST (1811 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Internet "denial of service" vandalism that made several major sites unreachable this week is more than just a nuisance. The attacks are seen by the federal government as a disruption of commerce, opening the door for the FBI to enter the investigation.

But the FBI may never know who is responsible for the cyber-attacks, due to the difficulty in tracing the electronic trails, a senior law enforcement source told CNN.

ALSO E*Trade, ZDNet latest targets in wave of cyber-attacks Denial of service hackers take on new targets     MESSAGE BOARD Insurgency

President Clinton said Wednesday the federal government is looking into ways to stop the attacks. "I have asked people who know more about it than I do whether there is anything we can do about it," the president said as he left the White House for a trip to Texas.

The FBI said its National Infrastructure Protection Center planned a news conference Wednesday afternoon at FBI headquarters in Washington.

Denial of service, or DoS, attacks flood a Web site with repeated requests for information, making the site unavailable to others.

Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas contributed to this report

Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI
National Infrastructure Protection Center

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