Digital vandals using distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are proving effective in driving e-commerce and security sites offline, and even out of business. The recent attacks show the DDoS becoming a potent weapon against sites with limited resources to defend their sites or pay overusage fees from attack-related bandwidth consumption. Authorize-It, a Kentucky firm processing online credit card transactions, says it was knocked offline for a week by a DDoS extortion scheme. The attack occurred in mid-April, roughly the same time another online card processor, 2Checkout, was also hobbled by a DDoS blackmail plot. Both 2Checkout and Authorize-It serve the small business e-commerce market. Sites offering tools to deflect hacker intrusions and spyware infestation have also become targets of DDoS attacks. Last week the NukeCops site was shut down and placed for sale, just days after a protracted DDoS struck NukeCops and an affiliated site, ComputerCops. NukeCops had just begun offering a tool claiming to secure the PHPNuke content management system against SQL injection attacks, an exploit frequently used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to online forum applications. Full Story