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Hackers launched one of the worst attacks ever on the computers that control the Internet, officials confirmed on Tuesday, but Monday's attack was quickly thwarted and went unnoticed by most users.
A prolonged attack on the 13 'root' servers around the globe that control the Web's domain names - dotcom, dotnet, dotedu and others - could have significantly slowed or even stopped worldwide Internet communications.
'An attack did occur, and it appears to have been directed at the root servers,' said Louis Touton, vice-president for the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the quasi-governmental agency that oversees operation of the 13 root servers from its offices in Marina del Rey, California.
The FBI was investigating who launched the attack, which reportedly shut down seven of the servers and impaired the functions of two others. The remaining four servers are thought to be the minimum number able to keep the worldwide computer network operating.
Mr Touton said that during the attack, which began about 5pm EDT on Monday and lasted about an hour, Internet traffic typically handled by the affected machines was rerouted to other servers.
Mr Touton declined to characterise the severity of the attack, adding that similar ones have happened before. But some independent Internet security officials said it was the worst attack ever on the root servers. If it had been sustained, Internet users worldwide would have seen significant delays and failed connections.
'It was an attack against all 13 servers, which is a little more rare than an attack against any one,' Paul Vixie, chairman of the Internet Software Consortium Inc, told the Washington Post.
The attack was of a type known as 'distributed denial of service'. In a typical such attack, hackers secretly hack into numerous personal computers through out the world. Then they use those computers to simultaneously send multiple requests to a server in an attempt to overwhelm it and shut it down.
The fact that the attack failed indicates the root server system's security works like it should, Mr Touton and others said.
Though technicians thwarted Monday's attack, Mr Touton said it nonetheless highlights the need for increased vigilance on the part of everybody who uses the Internet.
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