How hard is it to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack?

Arguably, the hacktivist collective Anonymous has made launching DDoS attacks look easy, due to its high-profile DDoS campaigns against everyone from PayPal and MasterCard to the FBI and Department of Justice. In addition, Anonymous offered the promise of one-click attacks via its low orbit ion cannon (LOIC) DDoS attack tool.

While LOIC was great at building buzz for Anonymous, it also provided valuable intelligence for law enforcement agencies, since many users apparently didn't realize that the tool alone wouldn't obscure their IP address from the sites they attacked.

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