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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:13:59
mgraffam@mhv.net
Wed, 16 Sep 1998 09:27:44 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, Alex Alten wrote:
> At 10:08 AM 9/16/98 +0100, Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
> >
> >What if the TESS server happens to be down?
> >
>
> This problem has been solved before. Novell file
> servers use mirroring and replication to ensure
> that a downed server doesn't disrupt things.
>
Which is fine when we are dealing with servers that may be down due to
ordinary operational difficulty; this whole scenario changes when a
powerful attacker decides to develop some new DoS attack in order to keep
you from sending messages through the system.
I can imagine an attacker killing all the TESS servers in order to
frustrate the attempts of a person to send a 'sealed' document on the hope
that if the attack delays communication long enough the victim will send
the document in the clear due to a combination of frustration, and need to
get the information to the recieving party quickly.
The back-up server approach does nothing, really, to offset this sort of
thing. If an attacker has the ability to crash a machine (ping of death,
out of band bug, whatever) 4000 back up servers don't help much.
Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam@mhv.net)
http://www.mhv.net/~mgraffam -- Philosophy, Religion, Computers, Crypto, etc
"..subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and now
one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.." John Stuart Mill
"The Subjection of Women"
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:13:59