| Recurring |
multiple_organization |
(a) The software failure incident of a denial-of-service attack on major commercial websites, including CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo, was attributed to a 16-year-old Canadian miscreant using the handle Mafiaboy. This incident was a significant event at the time, showcasing the vulnerability of these websites to such attacks [10137].
(b) The article mentions that since the incident involving Mafiaboy in 2000, the nature of denial-of-service attackers has changed. It states that attackers have evolved from pimply faced amateurs to organized criminals using DoS attacks as an extortion tactic against commercial sites. This evolution suggests that similar incidents of DoS attacks may have occurred at other organizations as well, indicating a broader trend in the cybersecurity landscape [10137]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article is related to the design phase. The failure was caused by a denial-of-service (DoS) attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian using a bot network to flood major commercial websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo with an overwhelming volume of traffic. This attack rendered the websites inaccessible to their customers, leading to server collapses. The incident highlights how the design vulnerabilities in the websites' systems made them susceptible to such attacks [10137].
(b) The software failure incident is not related to the operation phase or misuse of the system. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident described in the article is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian using the handle Mafiaboy. The attack involved flooding major commercial websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo with an overwhelming volume of traffic, causing their servers to be unable to cope and resulting in the websites becoming inaccessible to customers. This failure originated from within the system, as the attack exploited vulnerabilities in the websites' servers and infrastructure [10137].
(b) outside_system: The nature of DoS attackers has evolved over time, shifting from pimply faced amateurs like Mafiaboy to organized criminals who use DoS attacks as an extortion tactic against commercial sites. This change in the nature of attackers indicates that external factors, such as the motivations and tactics of malicious actors outside the system, can also contribute to software failure incidents [10137]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions, human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in Article 10137 was caused by non-human actions. Specifically, it was a denial-of-service (DoS) attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian using a bot network to flood major commercial websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo with an overwhelming volume of traffic. This non-human action led to the servers being unable to cope, resulting in the collapse of the websites [10137].
(b) The incident did involve human actions as well. The 16-year-old Canadian, known as Mafiaboy, was the individual behind the attack. Despite the attack being executed through non-human means like a bot network, it was ultimately a human decision and action that initiated and carried out the attack [10137]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
software |
(a) The software failure incident mentioned in the article is not attributed to hardware issues but rather to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian individual using a bot network to flood major commercial websites with an overwhelming volume of traffic, rendering them inaccessible to customers [10137]. This incident is a clear example of a software failure caused by external malicious actions rather than hardware failures.
(b) The software failure incident is directly linked to the actions of the individual, Mafiaboy, who used software tools to orchestrate the DoS attack on websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo. The failure of the websites to remain accessible to users was a result of the software-based attack that overwhelmed their servers, causing them to collapse under the excessive traffic load [10137]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
malicious |
(a) The objective of the software failure incident was malicious. The incident involved a denial-of-service (DoS) attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian using the handle Mafiaboy. The attack targeted major commercial websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo, rendering them inaccessible to customers. Mafiaboy used a bot network to control millions of computers and flooded the websites with overwhelming traffic, causing their servers to collapse. This attack was not accidental but a deliberate act to disrupt the services of these websites [10137]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
unknown |
(a) The intent of the software failure incident in Article 10137 was not due to poor decisions but rather intentional malicious actions. The denial-of-service attack orchestrated by the 16-year-old Canadian using the handle Mafiaboy was a deliberate act aimed at rendering major commercial websites inaccessible to their customers. The attack was carried out using a bot network to flood the websites with an overwhelming volume of traffic, causing their servers to collapse. This incident was not a result of poor decisions but rather a malicious intent to disrupt the services of the targeted websites [10137]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article was not due to development incompetence but rather a deliberate denial-of-service attack orchestrated by a 16-year-old Canadian individual known as Mafiaboy [10137].
(b) The software failure incident was accidental in the sense that the attack was not a result of unintentional mistakes or errors in the development process but rather a deliberate and malicious act by the attacker using a bot network to overwhelm the websites with traffic, causing them to collapse [10137]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article was temporary. The denial-of-service attack staged by Mafiaboy lasted a week, flooding major commercial websites like CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo with an overwhelming volume of traffic, rendering them inaccessible to customers during that period [10137]. |
| Behaviour |
crash |
(a) crash: The software failure incident described in the article is related to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that caused several major commercial websites, including CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo, to become inaccessible to their customers. The attack flooded the websites with an overwhelming volume of traffic, causing their servers to be unable to cope, ultimately leading to the collapse of the sites [10137].
(b) omission: The incident does not specifically mention a failure due to the system omitting to perform its intended functions at an instance(s) [10137].
(c) timing: The incident does not relate to a failure due to the system performing its intended functions correctly but too late or too early [10137].
(d) value: The software failure incident does not involve a failure due to the system performing its intended functions incorrectly [10137].
(e) byzantine: The incident does not describe a failure due to the system behaving erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions [10137].
(f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident in this case is primarily characterized as a crash, where the system lost its state and was unable to perform any of its intended functions due to the overwhelming volume of traffic generated by the DoS attack [10137]. |