'Denial of service' tool posted online

NEWS The code for Mstream, a powerful software tool designed to take down Web sites through distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, has been posted on the Internet. A DDoS tool can remotely infect thousands of computers and use them to bombard a site with an unmanageable level of messages - overloading and disabling it. Dave Dittrich, computer administrator at the University of Washington, who has completed an analysis of Mstream said the software's strength lies in its potential to complete a successful attack with a relatively low number of host computers. Recent attacks of this kind have affected high-profile Web sites such as Amazon, CNN, eBay and Yahoo!