Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are not
hypothetical possibilities. Indeed, they have been bringing down
Web sites for quite some time.
Most recently, two men in Britain have been sent to prison for their DDoS attacks
perpetrated on PayPal and other sites, according to
InformationWeek.
The InformationWeek article notes that six people were arrested
in connection with these DDoS attacks. Three of them ultimately
were charged under the United Kingdom's Computer Misuse Act of
1990. Of these three, the head of the group received a prison
sentence of 18 months, another was sentenced to seven months in
jail, and the third was sentenced to six months in jail which was
suspended for two years while he was ordered to serve 100 hours of
community service.
