Automated Tools & Mail Bombs (sidebar)

Parker [15] defines an automated crime as one ``that is executed entirely by one or more sequentially executed computer programs in a computer'' or computer network.

``We must anticipate increasingly sophisticated automated crime, and the packaging of easy-to-use, free-ware computer programs that can be executed by almost anybody for fully automated criminal activities.'' [15]

Mail-bombing tools are examples of automated crime. These tools are dangerous, easy to configure, and widely available on the Internet. The potential e-mail bomber simply points a Web browser at a search engine and performs a key-word search for e-mail bombing programs. A search will return pointers to programs such as Voodoo, Unabomber, KaBoom, Up Yours, and Avalanche, described in this sidebar. These examples are just a few of the well-known mail-bombing programs that have surfaced on the Internet in the past few years. Each of these tools has one primary objective: flood the mail server so that it becomes unavailable or is unserviceable.

Automated mail-bombing programs vary in features and functionality. One group is more flexible in the construction and configuration of the mail bombs. Other tools allow random messages and SMTP headers rather than a statically identifiable one. In addition, the bombing programs vary in installation and execution.

Many of these bombing tools come with professional quality graphical user interface (GUI) and very professional documentation. At the other end of the spectrum, there are bombing utilities that are executed via the command line and provide little or no documentation. Most mail-bombing tools attempt to provide full anonymity to the user. The next few subsections describe a few of the well known and freely available automated bombing tools available on the Internet.

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