How Homeland Security Plans To End the Scourge of DDoS Attacks

March 8, 2017

In late October, in Surprise, Ariz., more than 100 phone calls bombarded the police department’s emergency dispatch line. Calls also overwhelmed the nearby city of Peoria’s 911 system and departments across California and Texas.

But each time a dispatcher picked up, no one was on the line – and there was no emergency.

The Arizona district attorney’s office says the calls clogging 911 lines resulted from a digital prank, which triggered a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack on critical emergency communication systems. The prosecutor’s office tracked the torrent of calls to 18-year-old hacker Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai. Now, he’s facing four counts of felony computer tampering...