Cyberattacks led by one nation state or another happen all the time. It’s not always easy to attribute direct blame for them, including DDoS attacks, as the players rarely take public responsibility for their actions. International concerns over … [Read more...] about Nation State DDoS attacks: From 2007 to Today
Ransom Denial of Service (RDoS) Attacks Making a Comeback
As Corero Network Security noted in its most recent report focused on Q2 and Q3 of 2017, ransom denial of service (RDoS) attacks made a significant comeback last year. RDoS attacks enable cybercriminals to extort money from their targets. The … [Read more...] about Ransom Denial of Service (RDoS) Attacks Making a Comeback
IoT Case Study 2: Reaper
The mammoth botnet of 2017 was “Reaper”, also known as “IoT Troop”, which compared to its parallel of 2016, “Mirai”, looks set to have a considerably larger impact and is significantly more complicated. Looking back, the Mirai botnet seems … [Read more...] about IoT Case Study 2: Reaper
IoT Case Study 1: Mirai – Target: Dyn
The one year anniversary for one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded took place a few months ago. On October 21, 2016, domain name service provider Dyn was hit by three massive and sophisticated DDoS attacks against its entire managed DNS … [Read more...] about IoT Case Study 1: Mirai – Target: Dyn
2017 Trends in DDoS, According to Corero
Cybersecurity firm Corero Network Security issued a year-end report, focused on Q2 and Q3 2017, showing that DDoS attacks had doubled over the six month period. Its researchers largely attributed this rapid growth to unsecured Internet of Things … [Read more...] about 2017 Trends in DDoS, According to Corero
The Evolving DDoS Landscape, According to Fastly
Fastly recently published its end-of-year post looking at the evolving DDoS landscape. Fastly has scaled rapidly since its founding in 2011 as a CDN into an edge cloud platform serving more than 10% of all Internet requests worldwide, putting it … [Read more...] about The Evolving DDoS Landscape, According to Fastly
Homeland Security Draft White Paper 2017
The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce are working on a White Paper to be presented to the President later this year on enhancing the resilience of the Internet against Botnets and Distributed Attacks. They released a draft last … [Read more...] about Homeland Security Draft White Paper 2017
Were Script Kiddies Behind the DDoS Attack Against DNS Provider, Dyn?
In hacking and programming culture, a script kiddie is a derisive term used to describe people who use existing computer scripts or code to hack into computers because they lack the expertise or desire to write their own. The Urban Dictionary … [Read more...] about Were Script Kiddies Behind the DDoS Attack Against DNS Provider, Dyn?
Hactivist DDoS Attack: Anonymous Takes on Charlottesville, Virginia & Ultraright Groups
Following the notorious white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, hacktivist collective Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks against the town’s official website. The white nationalists and … [Read more...] about Hactivist DDoS Attack: Anonymous Takes on Charlottesville, Virginia & Ultraright Groups
Business Rivalry DDoS Attacks: Do Businesses Really Attack Each Other?
Business rivalry is thought to be the root cause of many DDoS attacks, say majority of DDoS victims. Research conducted last year by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International yielded several interesting insights into this mindset. They found that targeted … [Read more...] about Business Rivalry DDoS Attacks: Do Businesses Really Attack Each Other?
Extortion DDoS Attack: The Lizard Squad’s Notorious Antics
In April 2017, Akamai wrote about a black hat hacker group called The Lizard Squad who were sending extortion letters to businesses, demanding payment in bitcoin to prevent a DDoS attack against their applications. These letters were sent to … [Read more...] about Extortion DDoS Attack: The Lizard Squad’s Notorious Antics
What is the Motivation Behind a DDoS Attack?
DDoS attacks can have various motivations, from hobbyist hackers playing around to cybercriminals carrying out extortion rackets. DDoS attacks are fast becoming the most common type of cyberattack, growing rapidly in volume and number across 2017 and … [Read more...] about What is the Motivation Behind a DDoS Attack?
What is an IP Null Attack and is Null Routing an Effective Mitigation Technique?
According to RFC rules, the IP packet header should contain information on its transport level protocol. Packets contain IPv4 headers that carry this information. When the value of this field is set to zero, the packets can evade security measures … [Read more...] about What is an IP Null Attack and is Null Routing an Effective Mitigation Technique?
What is Slowloris?
Slowloris is DDoS attack software that makes it possible for a single computer to take down an entire web server by consuming all its resources. It operates at Layer 7 (the application layer). The attack requires minimal bandwidth to launch and only … [Read more...] about What is Slowloris?
What is Low Orbit Ion Cannon, or LOIC?
Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is a DoS attack script that disrupts a targeted server by sending a large volume of TCP or HTTP requests, or via a UDP flood. It does not require computer knowledge and is therefore probably the most used and most popular … [Read more...] about What is Low Orbit Ion Cannon, or LOIC?