Another participant, Arturo Servin, responds, "One big problem of DDoS is that sources (the host of botnets) may be completely unaware that they are part of a DDoS. (On) the other hand the target of a DDoS cannot do anything to stop an attack besides adding more (bandwidth) or contacting one by one the whole path of providers to try to minimize the effect."

On the glass-half-full side, some participants say using a distributed architecture with anycast and loads of bandwidth will help mitigate attacks, or limit them to a subset of nodes. Others say eliminating botnets is a preventative measure.

"DDoS is just a symptom. The problem is botnets," states Roland Dobbins, solutions architect at Arbor Networks. "Preventing hosts from becoming bots in the first place and taking down existing botnets is the only way to actually prevent DDoS attacks. Note that prevention is distinct from defending oneself against DDoS attacks."

Easier said than done.

"Actually, botnets are an artifact," responds participant Bill Manning. "Claiming that the tool is the problem might be a bit shortsighted. With the evolution of Internet technologies I suspect botnet-like structures to become much more prevalent and useful for things other than coordinated attacks."