Microsoft researchers try to trace hack attacks

Microsoft researchers believe they have found a way to trace hack attacks using a new software tool. If this works out in pilot projects as hoped, it could become a must for every IT shop.

One of the biggest problems with hack attacks is that they usually cannot be be stopped. Attackers basically have a free pass to carry out their treacherous activities. If this preliminary work by three Microsoft researchers is effective, it could prove to be a critical weapon in the increasing warfare in cyberspace.

According to Microsoft, the researchers' tool allowed the team to identify the machines responsible for the attacks even when the host's IP address changed frequently.

"What we are really trying to get at is the host responsible for an attack," Yinglian Xie, a member of the Microsoft team, told TechnologyReview.com. "We are not trying to track those identifiers but associate them with a particular host."

The software tool could help security firms build a better picture of which Internet hosts should be blocked from sending traffic to their
clients. And if this works across cyberspace, it could be the silver bullet to help rid the Internet of millions of hack attacks.

For more on stopping hack attacks:
- check out this TechnologyReview.com article

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