Three of the thirteen computers responsible for managing global Internet traffic suffered an attack on Tuesday with unknown objectives.
The problem was reminiscent of the most violent attack on the Internet ever, carried out in 2002, which affected all computers allocated to international traffic management.
According to experts, the new attack is described as powerful, but on a smaller scale, and will have lasted at least 12 hours, during which Internet traffic reached unusual peaks, with large volumes of information circulating, but little felt by the most users, reports the Associated Press.
Since the successful attack recorded in 2002, several measures have been taken to increase the resilience of the Internet and ensure the distribution of critical data across the globe.
The attempted attack has already been confirmed by the US Government’s Security Department, which acknowledged the existence of abnormal volumes of information but considers that, with the information available at the moment, there is no reason to believe an imminent threat.
Without official justification for the attempted attack, US officials assume that the action could have targeted the company that operates Internet traffic servers, among others, with the .org suffix, UltraDNS.
Related News:
2002-11-07 – Basic Internet infrastructure servers transferred to prevent attacks
2002-10-24 – Attack on Internet servers must have originated outside the USA
