# Do big internet companies get with with DOS attacks?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-big-internet-companies-get-with-with-dos-attacks/370262>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 25, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-big-internet-companies-get-with-with-dos-attacks/370262 "2006-08-25T22:15:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-big-internet-companies-get-with-with-dos-attacks/370262/1 "2006-08-25T22:15:58Z")

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I’ve read a couple articles about hackers extorting money from various sites by threatening them with DOS or DDOS attacks, but even though those sites appear to be big in their industries, I haven’t heard a story about a company like Amazon, Yahoo! or Microsoft being hit with those.

I wonder if this ever happens and they just have the resources to deal with it until it goes away, if they keep it quiet or it just doesn’t happen.

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**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-big-internet-companies-get-with-with-dos-attacks/370262/2 "2006-08-25T23:36:30Z")

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It looks like it happened to [yahoo](http://news.com.com/2100-1023-236621.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Yahoo executives today said their system was knocked out by a “distributed denial of service attack”–a vulnerability well-known to security experts. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Emergency Response Team Center and the FBI all have issued alerts on the subject during the past few months.