As soon as this story hits Drudge be prepared for all sorts of Chicken Little-related doom and gloom predictions. This ominous photo illustrates the absolute terror we all face. ::cough::

A team of security researchers, an innocent-sounding catch-all description if there ever was one, have discovered a new type denial of service attack that not only does the usual damage, but it also appears to be some sort of permaban. That is to say, your machine is attacked and it will never come back online again, even after the attack itself has stopped. Neat!

Scary as that sounds, there’s no real reason to be afraid. The researchers behind the attack aren’t script kiddies looking to create mischief; they’ve already started contacting the proper folks, including the companies that create firewalls, operating system folks, and so on. As hard as it may seem, the researchers are trying to help.

But again, tell this story to Fox News or CNN and it’s fear and panic for everyone.