Internet Mayhem

Today the Internet was hit with the largest distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack in its history.  The massive disruption, which may have begun a few days ago, seems to have been brought on by a feud between a nonprofit international anti-spam service, SpamHaus, and Cyberbunker, an ISP (Internet Service Provider) in the Netherlands that purportedly specializes in spam generation and is willing to host anything, short of terrorism or child pornography, for Web publication.  (Rumor has it that Cyberbunker is hardened against nuclear attack and can be self-sufficient in isolation for months.)  You will surely be hearing a lot about this story today and in the days to come.  Here are a few sample stories on this incredible dustup here and here and here.