Hackers jams Microsoft WebSite! (fwd)

[HUNG QUANG NGO <hngo@cs.umn.edu>]

>I visited Microsoft site yesterday to also look for some info about
Internet Information 
>Server...but I got "server busy response" and couldn't got in :) Now I
found this very 
>interesting article below :) 
>
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>
>Hackers jam Microsoft's site 
>By Janet Kornblum
>June 20, 1997, 2 p.m. PT 
>
>Hackers exploited a bug in Microsoft's (MSFT) server
>software, jamming the company's Web site since yesterday. 
>
>The hackers are apparently taking advantage of a bug in Windows
>NT 4.0 running Microsoft's Internet Information Server 3.0, in
>which the entire site is jammed by someone typing in a specific
>URL into a Web browser, according to Mike Nash, director of
>marketing for Windows NT server. 
>
>Hackers sent Microsoft an email at about 4 p.m. yesterday, Nash
>said. Microsoft engineers immediately developed a patch and said
>they would post it on their site today by 5 p.m., he added. 
>
>"Hackers made us aware of a problem that they had identified,"
>Nash said. "It is possible to develop a URL--a string of characters
>in a browser--that could cause interruption of service on a Web
>server." (The site remained available through an alternative IP
>address.) 
>
>Someone identified as Todd Fast says on his site that he
>inadvertently discovered the bug "while examining the parameters
>of an URL Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) would
>accept without an error." 
>
>"This is a hugely embarrassing bug for Microsoft in my opinion,
>particularly since they've just been lauded for pulling ahead of
>Netscape in the Web server market," Fast wrote. "Knowing that
>anyone with a grudge and a twitchy keyboard could shut down
>any of their customer's Web sites must bear horribly on their
>collective conscience." 
>
>Microsoft representatives originally said that the problem was
>caused by busy servers and that users should expect delays
>through the end of the month. 
>
>The problem was exacerbated by what Microsoft spokesman
>Adam Sohn called "phenomenal growth." 
>
>In other words, not everyone who tries to access the site will get
>onto it every time. The problem is compounded by Internet
>routing jams and individual jams at Internet service providers,
>Nash said. 
>
>Those who were able to get to the home page today were greeted
>with the following message: "We're upgrading; our apologies in
>advance due to growth...Over the next few weeks, some users
>may see some interruption in service. Read what's happening!" 
>
>The "Read what's happening" had a link, presumably to a story,
>but people had trouble getting to that link. 
>
>The outage and problems have angered some Web surfers who
>have been trying to get onto the pages. Some, who presumably
>did not yet know the cause of the outage, used the problems to
>criticize the company's Web server software. "Maybe they should
>have bought Linux," one reader sarcastically wrote to CNET's
>NEWS.COM.
>
>"They have so many bugs in their software, so why use it?," said
>Ben Efros, a Webmaster who also wrote in. "Microsoft is just a
>large company going nowhere on the Internet." 
>
>But others came to the defense of Microsoft, saying that despite
>the bug, its server software was superior to others.
>
>