Educate yourself here

Just picture it: a thousand computers all using the same DDoS tools to generate countless fake accounts, all flooding the same website or server with thousands of gigabytes of data per second. "It's tremendously easy," Larson told me on the phone this afternoon. "Anybody can afford it; anybody can do it."

the attackers specifically went after the PlayStation Network's login servers—the ones that recognize and accept usernames and passwords—rather than the servers that host PSN's content, it might have been easier to overload Sony's network with fake requests. To do this, the attackers may have manipulated outside Domain Name System (DNS) servers—the servers that translate domain names into IP addresses—into barraging the PlayStation Network with data. The internet is full of these servers, many of which are easy to target and use for malfeasance.

"There's no size network that cannot be overrun—you can basically overrun any size network you want."

a DDoS attack is not a security breach—it's simply a flood of traffic.

It's not that black and white. The DDOS attack itself is not a hack but to run a successful attack you need a good amount of preparation, knowledge and lots of reconnaissance. Things that are usually considered part of a "hack".

"In the computer security context, a hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network."

DDOS can be done in a number of different ways. It's not just sending as many bits as possible over a line. For example you can run a DDOS by breaching the frontend and making the servers you are attacking working for you by duplicating the streams. Read up on it a bit. running a DDOS is not done by simply clicking a button. There are just too many different angles to attack from.

The next thing to consider is that availability is a part of network security. Meaning if you successfully compromise the availability of a system you compromised security.

Last but not least for running a DDOS you need a large enough botnet. How do you think botnets are created?

The thing we have to actually consider is not if an attack can be defined as a hack but if an attacker can be defined as a hacker or a mere script kiddie.

We can't know enough.

It is important! that we marginalize anything that criminals have done so we can feel better than them.

We must always remember that what they do isn't a big deal except when it is, but even then it's nothing. They are not only criminals but also idiots who accomplish nothing and are absolutely incompetent, especially when they succeed.