The FBI has warned US web sites and internet service providers of the risk that they may suffer denial-of-service attacks, possibly emanating from Western Europe. The warning was issued after the US National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) received “credible, but non-specific” information from the Italian authorities on the afternoon of 5th August 2002.

In its alert, the FBI has recommended that web site and ISP administrators should “heighten their awareness of network traffic” and report any “suspected malicious activities to their local FBI offices.” The alert did not specify which networks were at risk or which groups or individuals were suspects.

There has been official confirmation that an unusually large volume of data (about 700% more traffic than usual) was directed to ISPs and web sites on the East coast, but then shifted toward the West, the Associated Press reported.

It appears that the impact has been limited and no outages have been reported so far.

The NIPC has reported that network traffic will continue monitored and the alert will be updated if any additional information is received.

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