Attacks on company websites intensify

It will be much harder this year for companies to deflect the rising onslaught of cyberattacks orchestrated to knock them off the Internet. Hundreds of times each day, attackers use a technique called distributed denial of service, or DDoS, that involves coordinating home PCs to flood targeted websites with nuisance requests -- to the point where no one else can access the site. Most DDoS attacks get blocked or filtered. But the volume and sophistication of such attacks accelerated in 2010, a trend that looks to intensify in 2011. "The good guys are slightly ahead," says Craig Labovitz, chief scientist at network security firm Arbor Networks. "But it's not clear this equilibrium will continue." One major driver: More home PCs than ever have broadband connections capable of sending large streams of data to commercial websites. That's made it easier for protest groups to rally like-minded cohorts to join in attacks.