Associated Press
LONDON -- When a small Internet service provider called Cloud Nine Communications Ltd. crashed to earth, it blamed hackers for overwhelming its networks with bogus traffic.
The blitz cut short Cloud Nine's six-year existence and underscored the mounting costs of protecting online businesses against increasingly sophisticated attackers.
With the cost and complexity of computer security rising, experts suggest only the largest companies can now survive in the lawless world of the Internet.
Cloud Nine suffered last month from a sustained denial of service, or DoS, attack that lasted four to five days and paralyzed its ability to provide its customers with service.
