In Depth
A Health-Care Provider Solves a Denial-of-Service Mystery
After daring a security vendor to prove his product worked, one network engineer ends up with a global solution for a denial-of-service attack.
By Scott Berinato
Within two days, the rigged search had been repaired by Google. Within weeks, Microsoft issued a
significant set of patches during one of its "Patch Tuesdays" as a result of Smith's information-
sharing.
"Obviously we wished it hadn't happened to us," Smith says, "But we were also proud to participate
in the industry to fight the problem." Still, sharing wasn't pure altruism on Smith's part. Like any good
CSO, Smith, who has since been made an IT manager, is using the incident as proof positive that
security needs attention. The whole incident, he says, "helped us encourage our execs to spend needed
money on security. They saw that this is real, not just scare tactics so we can buy some toys."
Send feedback to Senior Editors Sarah D. Scalet and href="mailto:sberinato@cxo.com">Scott Berinato
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