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February 9, 2000, Dow Jones News Service	 	
In Wake Of Attacks, Web Sites Turn To Law Enforcement
 By PETER LOFTUS

NEW YORK -- For all their technological savvy, Internet companies by
themselves can't always prevent the kinds of illegal attacks that have
shut down several leading Web sites this week.

The Web site attacks continued for a third consecutive day Wednesday,
temporarily shutting down online properties operated by Ziff-Davis Inc.'s
ZDNet unit (ZDZ), E*Trade Group Inc. (EGRP) and Datek Online Brokerage
Services. Hackers temporarily shut down sites operated by Yahoo! Inc.
(YHOO), EBay Inc. (EBAY), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Buy.com Inc. (BUYX) and
Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) CNN.com on Monday and Tuesday. The Federal 
Bureau of Investigation is investigating the attacks and has scheduled a 
news conference for 2 p.m. EST in Washington. 

Several large Internet companies seem to have escaped the wrath of the
hackers so far. America Online Inc. (AOL), Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM), Lycos
Inc. (LCOS), About.com Inc. (BOUT), CMGI Inc.'s (CMGI) AltaVista unit and
Walt Disney Co.'s Go.com (GO) unit said Wednesday they hadn't been
victimized.

AltaVista Chief Information Officer David Henke agrees, noting that the
very nature of the Internet makes it vulnerable to attacks. The Internet
was structured as an open system and in that environment, companies need
contingency plans.

If the main problem in this week's attacks involved Web sites being
overrun by data, then shouldn't these companies simply boost their
capacities for handling the data? Henke is skeptical of this approach.
"You could boost capacity but at some point it becomes cost-prohibitive,"
he said.

He doesn't think people will turn away from the Internet in flocks, but he
says that companies will have to respond to demands that Web services be
more stable and reliable.