Lizard Squad member, Zachary Buchta, was sentenced to three months in prison last week for his role in a “hacker-for-hire” service. Buchta who is 20 pleaded guilty in December 2017 for one count of conspiracy to commit damage to protected … [Read more...] about Lizard Squad Member Offers DDoS-for-Hire and is Jailed
DDoS Motivation
MemCached DDoS and Ransomware
Over the past week, it has become clear that attackers are seizing the memached DDoS attack vector as an opportunity to extract payments from attacked companies. Akamai reported that a group of DDoS attacks executed using memcached servers were … [Read more...] about MemCached DDoS and Ransomware
Mirai and Minecraft
When the three U.S. hackers, Paras Jha, Josiah White and Dalton Norman, pled guilty to creating the Mirai botnet last year, it became apparent from a Wired investigation that the three had created the botnet in the first place to create a competitive … [Read more...] about Mirai and Minecraft
Accidental DDoS
Kaspersky Labs just published a report on DDoS attacks in Q4 2017 and found that a surprising number of DDoS attacks are not motivated by financial gain or to profit on the huge spike in Bitcoin, but are in fact the accidental outcome of botnet side … [Read more...] about Accidental DDoS
How Jack Chappell Avoided Jail Time for His Role in vDos
In July 2017, British man 19-year-old Jack Chappell was arrested by the U.K. police and charged with using the vDoS attack-for-hire service to launch attacks against various U.K. and U.K.-based companies, including the BBC, British Telecom, Virgin … [Read more...] about How Jack Chappell Avoided Jail Time for His Role in vDos
DDoS Case Study: Phil Nagy and the Winning Poker Network
Just As Phil Nagy, the founder of the Winning Poker Network and American Cardroom, was holding a big tournament last summer, his network was struck by a powerful denial-of-service attack, which forced Nagy into postponing or scrapping various events. … [Read more...] about DDoS Case Study: Phil Nagy and the Winning Poker Network
The Men Behind Mirai
Last month, three men pleaded guilty to creating the Mirai botnet, in which hundreds of thousands of connected digital video records, routers and cameras were used to launch a massive DDoS attack against the domain name services company, Dyn for an … [Read more...] about The Men Behind Mirai
DDoS Mitigation in the Cloud: Part II
There are five general requirements to remove an attack in the cloud: (i) Detect the attack asap and determine its size; (ii) Attempt to mitigate its effects as much as is possible; (iii) Migrate the Virtual Machine (VM), which is under attack to … [Read more...] about DDoS Mitigation in the Cloud: Part II
Player Advantage DDoS Attacks: the Beginnings of DDoS
Player advantage DDoS attacks fall into a similar attack motivation bracket as business rivalry motivated attacks. We wrote elsewhere about this. Taking down or slowing the service of a rival competitor can significantly affect their bottom line, … [Read more...] about Player Advantage DDoS Attacks: the Beginnings of DDoS
Smokescreen DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are employed as a smokescreen for other more malicious cyberattacks more often than you might think. The swarming nature of DDoS can be an effective distraction technique; as cybersecurity teams focus on mitigating the attack and getting … [Read more...] about Smokescreen DDoS Attacks
Nation State DDoS attacks: From 2007 to Today
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
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?