Web sites that can take a punch
The recent, well-publicized cyberattack on Google was just the latest skirmish in a long war. And like most long wars, this one features an arms race, as hackers seek out new security holes, and web site administrators try to close them.Systems for detecting attacks against networked computers are commercially available, and academic and industrial researchers are constantly improving them. But when a web site is under attack, its only viable defense may be to take its servers offline, which, in the short term, can cost it money in lost revenue and productivity and, in the long term, could hurt its credibility. Indeed, knocking a site offline may be an attackers’ sole intention.MIT researchers have developed a system to keep web servers — or, for that matter, any Internet-connected computers — running even when they’re under attack. The work was funded largely by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects...