The PBot botnet was the most significant DDoS malware around in Q2 2017. Malicious actors employed decades-old PHP code to craft the largest attack that security firm Akamai observed in the second quarter of last year, according to its quarterly … [Read more...] about What was the PBot Botnet?
Akamai
DD4BC, Its International Activities and Arrest
Earlier this year, Operation Pleaides, an international law enforcement effort, took down at least one main target in the cybercriminal group DD4BC (Distributed-Denial-of-Service for Bitcoin). A Europol January press release celebrated the “arrest … [Read more...] about DD4BC, Its International Activities and Arrest
DDoS Protection Service: Akamai
Akamai is one of the world’s largest DDoS protection service providers. It offers two kinds of service that use different protection measures: Prolexic and Kona Site Defender. Prolexic is grounded in border gateway protocol (BGP) that routes … [Read more...] about DDoS Protection Service: Akamai
DDoS Protection Service: Verizon
Verizon Enterprise Solutions, previously known as EdgeCast Networks, entered the cloud security space with their own WAF product in 2014. The CDN has offered network layer DDoS protection to its customers at no additional cost since its outset, … [Read more...] about DDoS Protection Service: Verizon
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
What is Memcached DDoS?
Memcached is a tool used to cache data and lessen strain on large data stores, such as disk or databases. The memcached protocol involves the server being queried for information about key value stories. It was built to be used on systems that are … [Read more...] about What is Memcached DDoS?
Massive Memcached DDoS Attacks Mark Largest Ever
Last week, code repository GitHub experienced the most powerful DDoS attack recorded to date at 1.35 Tbps. No botnet was required, and it used an increasingly popular DDoS method. GitHub’s site was only down for 10 minutes as it automatically … [Read more...] about Massive Memcached DDoS Attacks Mark Largest Ever
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
Key Takeaways on DDoS from Akamai’s Q4 2017 Report
Akamai’s latest security report, focused on Q4 2017, noted that DDoS attacks went up by 14% year-on-year. Application-layer attacks rose by 115% quarter by quarter, however, they still comprised under 1% of all DDoS attacks. Year-on-year, there was … [Read more...] about Key Takeaways on DDoS from Akamai’s Q4 2017 Report
How the FBI took down the Mirai creators
At the end of last year, the FBI filed charges against the creators of Mirai, the largest DDoS attack of its kind when it struck the DNS provider, Dyn in October 2016 and took down the sites for some of the largest companies in the U.S., including … [Read more...] about How the FBI took down the Mirai creators
DDoS Case Study: Ababil, the Longest Cyber Attack in History
Operation Ababil began on September 18th, 2012 and continues to this day. It is the longest continuous cyber attack in history, comprised of multiple different waves and phases utilizing a variety of DDoS attack types. They were launched by the Cyber … [Read more...] about DDoS Case Study: Ababil, the Longest Cyber Attack in History
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
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
Why Do People Perform DDoS Attacks?
Last September, independent journalist Brian Krebs found himself the victim of a record-breaking digital attack when a huge amount of junk traffic (between 600-700Gbps) took his website, KrebsonSecurity.com offline. Ironically, Krebs is a digital … [Read more...] about Why Do People Perform DDoS Attacks?