While network security experts disagree on when the first Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack occurred, it is generally conceded that the most visible series of attacks occurred when Internet giants Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, E-trade and others were attacked intermittently over a period of several days. The Yankee Group estimated the total cumulative costs of these attacks at $1.2 Billion U.S. Dollars, and it was later discovered that the attacks were conducted by a 15-year old Canadian teenager using the alias “Mafiaboy”. The teenager had crafted the series of attacks using several publicly available hacker tools.
