NEW YORK -- Major travel Web sites at press time had not come under
the kind of electronic attacks that temporarily blocked access last
week to popular Web sites like E-Trade, Amazon.com and Buy.com.
Still, they were on the alert for such assaults, called "denial
of service" attacks because they flood Web site servers with so
many fake "messages" that regular customers cannot make
purchases.
"Our antennae are up," said Suzi LeVine, project manager for Expedia.com.
Expedia.com has plans in place for such emergencies and was
monitoring the situation, she said. Several big names in Web travel
did not want to discuss the topic on the record or even have their
company name mentioned.
"It just invites people to come and have at it," said one.
"You'd be asking us to paint a big red bull's-eye," another
said.
The attacks generated much commentary on the vulnerability of
on-line companies.
Whether the publicity will scare consumers away from the Web
might depend on whether they understand that this kind of attack is
not the same as a security breach in which hackers gain access to
customers' credit card numbers and personal information, one source
said. "That's the important thing to distinguish," LeVine said.
Another Web travel site spokesman said, "This is not a security
threat. It's a flood-the-system threat. We're aware of what it
could be, and we have reasonable precautions in place."
Travelocity.com, the travel booking service for
another big site that was attacked, Yahoo!, was unavailable for
comment at press time.