Sweden to jail DoS attackers

By Shaun Nichols on Feb 23, 2007 10:23 AM
Filed under Security

Up to two years behind bars for launching denial of service attacks.

The Swedish government is to hand out harsher punishments to cyber-criminals who launch denial of service (DoS) attacks.

Amendments to existing computer crime legislation would punish the perpetrators of DoS attacks with up to two years in prison.

Swedish news service The Local reported that the new laws could go into effect as soon as 1 June.

DoS attacks involve flooding a website with page requests, effectively causing a crippling traffic jam that renders the site inaccessible. Most ISPs already ban the practice in their terms of service.

The Swedish government has been feuding with attackers ever since it raided the headquarters of file-sharing group The Pirate Bay.

Shortly after police confiscated the group's servers, DoS attacks took the official government website and the Swedish national police site offline. The attacks were assumed to be a reprisal from disgruntled Pirate Bay users.

While the law would open the door for the prosecution of DoS attackers in Sweden, it is unlikely to have much effect worldwide.

A study by security firm Symantec last year found that nearly half of all DoS attacks originated from the US or China. Sweden was not listed among the top 10 sources.