Category Archives: DDoS Criminals

US SEC Corporate Filing System Said to Be Vulnerable to DDoS Attacks

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Wall Street’s top regulator, has discovered a vulnerability in its corporate filing database that could cause the system to collapse, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The SEC’s September 22 memo reveals that its EDGAR database, containing financial reports from US public companies and mutual funds, could be at risk of “denial of service” attacks, a type of cyber intrusion that floods a network, overwhelming it and forcing it to close. The discovery came when the SEC was testing EDGAR’s ability to absorb monthly and annual financial filings that will be required under new rules adopted last year for the $18 trillion mutual fund industry. The memo shows that even an unintentional error by a company, and not just hackers with malicious intentions, could bring the system down. Even the submission of a large “invalid” form could overwhelm the system’s memory. The defect comes after the SEC’s admission last month that hackers breached the EDGAR database in 2016. The discovery will likely add to concerns about the vulnerability of the SEC’s network and whether the agency has been adequately addressing cyber threats. The mutual fund industry has long had concerns that market-sensitive data required in the new rules could be exploited if it got into the wrong hands. The industry has since redoubled its calls for SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to delay the data-reporting rules, set to go into effect in June next year, until it is reassured the information will be secure. “Clearly, the SEC should postpone implementation of its data reporting rule until the security of those systems is thoroughly tested and assessed by independent third parties,” said Mike McNamee, chief public communications officer of The Investment Company Institute (ICI), whose members manage $20 trillion worth of assets in the United States. “We are confident Chairman Clayton will live up to his pledge that the SEC will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the security of its systems and the data it collects.” An SEC spokesman declined to comment. The rules adopted last year requiring asset managers to file monthly and annual reports about their portfolio holdings were designed to protect them in the event of a market crisis by showing the SEC and investors that they have enough liquidity to cover a rush of redemptions. During a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Clayton testified that the agency was considering whether to delay the rules in light of the cyber concerns. He did not, however, mention anything about the denial of service attack vulnerability. Virtual vomit EDGAR is the repository for corporate America, housing millions of filings ranging from quarterly earnings to statements on acquisitions. It is a virtual treasure trove for cyber criminals who could trade on any information gleaned before it is publicly released. In the hack disclosed last month involving EDGAR, the SEC has said it now believes the criminals may have stolen non-public data for illicit trading. The vulnerability revealed in the September memo shows that even an invalid form could jam up EDGAR. The system did not immediately reject the form, the memo says. Rather, “it was being validated for hours before failing due to an invalid form type.” That conclusion could spell trouble for the SEC’s EDGAR database because it means that if hackers wanted to, they could “basically take down the whole EDGAR system” by submitting a malicious data file, said one cyber security expert with experience securing networks of financial regulators who reviewed the letter for Reuters. “The system would consume the data and essentially throw up on itself,” the person added. Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/us-sec-corporate-filing-system-said-to-be-vulnerable-to-ddos-attacks-1759392

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US SEC Corporate Filing System Said to Be Vulnerable to DDoS Attacks

DDoS trends, DNS survey signal warnings to infosec pros

Two vendor reports out this week may be of interest to CISOs in planning their defensive strategies. —Imperva, a supplier of DDoS protection services, said it found a new attack tactic, nicknamed “pulse wave DDoS”, due to the traffic pattern it generates: A rapid succession of attack bursts that split a botnet’s attack output, enabling an offender to go after multiple targets. One such attack was also the largest network layer assault it mitigated in the second quarter peaked at 350 Gbps. –Meanwhile Infoblox Inc., which makes IP address management solutions, released a global survey finding that DNS security is often overlooked when it comes to cybersecurity strategy, with most companies inadequately prepared to defend against DNS attacks. Imperva’s announcement is included in its Q2 Global DDoS Threat Landscape report, on data from 2,618 network layer and 12,825 application layer DDoS attacks on customers’ Websites that use its services. The pulse wave DDoS tactic was described in an August blog , and researchers think it is designed to double a botnet’s output and exploit soft spots in “appliance first cloud second” hybrid mitigation solutions. “It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen attacks ramp up quickly. However, never before have we seen attacks of this magnitude peak with such immediacy, then be repeated with such precision. “Whoever was on the other end of these assaults, they were able to mobilize a 300Gbps botnet within a matter of seconds. This, coupled with the accurate persistence in which the pulses reoccurred, painted a picture of very skilled bad actors exhibiting a high measure of control over their attack resources.” Researchers suspect the tactic allows the threat actors behind it to switch targets on the fly. One suggested defence for organizations that have a DDoS mitigation provider is to double checking the ‘time to mitigation’ clause in the service level agreement. The report also notes two trends: First, the continued decline in network level attacks (at least for Imperva customers) and the continued increase (although in Q2 there was a slight dip) in application level attacks. Second, that the second quarter 75.9 percent of targets were subjected to multiple attacks—the highest percentage the company has seen. Number of targets subjected to repeat DDoS attacks. Imperva graphic The Infoblox global survey of over 1,000 security and IT professionals found respondents indicating that 86 per cent of those whose firms have DNS solutions said they failed to first alert teams of an occurring DNS attack, and nearly one-third of professionals doubted their company could defend against the next DNS attack. Twenty per cent of companies were first alerted to DNS attacks by customer complaints. In a release summarizing the survey (available here. Registration required), three out of 10 companies said they have already been victims of DNS attacks. Of those, 93 per cent have suffered downtime as a result of their most recent DNS attack. 40 percent were down for an hour or more, substantially impacting their business. Only 37 per cent of respondents said their companies were able to defend against all types of DNS attacks (hijacking, exploits, cache poisoning, protocol anomalies, reflection, NXDomain, amplification). Twenty-four per cent of respondents said their companies lost US $100,000 or more from their last DNS attack. “Most organizations regard DNS as simply plumbing rather than critical infrastructure that requires active defense,” Cricket Liu, chief DNS architect at Infoblox, said in the release. “Unfortunately, this survey confirms that, even on the anniversary of the enormous DDoS attack against Dyn—a dramatic object lesson in the effects of attacks on DNS infrastructure—most companies still neglect DNS security. Our approach to cybersecurity needs a fundamental shift: If we don’t start giving DNS security the attention it deserves, DNS will remain one of our most vulnerable Internet systems, and we’ll continue to see events like last year’s attack.” Source: https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/ddos-trends-dns-survey-signal-warnings-to-infosec-pros/397309

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DDoS trends, DNS survey signal warnings to infosec pros

As US launches DDoS attacks, N. Korea gets more bandwidth—from Russia

Fast pipe from Vladivostok gives N. Korea more Internet in face of US cyber operations. As the US reportedly conducts a denial-of-service attack against North Korea’s access to the Internet, the regime of Kim Jong Un has gained another connection to help a select few North Koreans stay connected to the wider world—thanks to a Russian telecommunications provider. Despite UN sanctions and US unilateral moves to punish companies that do business with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 38 North’s Martyn Williams reports that Russian telecommunications provider TransTelekom (????????????m) began routing North Korean Internet traffic at 5:30pm Pyongyang time on Sunday. The connection, Williams reported, offers a second route for traffic from North Korea’s Byol (“Star”) Internet service provider, which also runs North Korea’s cellular phone network. Byol offers foreigners in North Korea 1Mbps Internet access for €600 (US$660) a month (with no data caps). Up until now, all Byol’s traffic passed through a single link provided by China Unicom. But the new connection uses a telecommunications cable link that passes over the Friendship Bridge railway bridge—the only connection between North Korea and Russia. According to Dyn Research data, the new connection is now providing more than half of the route requests to North Korea’s networks. TransTelekom (sometimes spelled TransTeleComm) is owned by Russia’s railroad operator, Russian Railways. A Dyn Research chart showing the new routing data for North Korea’s ISP. According to a Washington Post report, The Department of Defense’s US Cyber Command had specifically targeted North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau—the country’s primary intelligence agency—with a denial-of-service attack against the organization’s network infrastructure. That attack was supposed to end on Saturday, according to a White House official who spoke with the Post . While the unnamed official said the attack specifically targeted North Korea’s own hacking operations, North Korea has previously run those operations from outside its borders—from China. So it’s not clear whether the attack would have had any impact on ongoing North Korean cyberespionage operations. Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/as-us-launches-ddos-attacks-n-korea-gets-more-bandwidth-from-russia/

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As US launches DDoS attacks, N. Korea gets more bandwidth—from Russia

National Lottery hit by DDoS attack – down 90 mins at peak demand time

On Saturday the UK National Lottery’s website was down – just as those players who stake online, rather than in retailers, were trying to pick their numbers and part with their cash – thanks to a DDoS attack. On Saturday the UK National Lottery’s website was down – just as those players who stake online, rather than in retailers, were trying to pick their numbers and part with their cash – thanks to a DDoS attack. Hitting a retail business causes it to loose money, but in the case of many time-sensitive events, that money can never be recouped, which was why newspaper print unions were so strong – yesterday’s news is no good tomorrow, and a bet now on last night’s lottery won’t win you much either. Both the gaming sites and the DDoS attackers know this, making gaming both highly targeted and highly defended. On the other hand, although there are other lotteries, there are not a lot of direct competitors to the National Lottery, so while it offered an apology to those customers unable to use its smartphone app or access its website, a quick fix is likely to retain their custom, but each hit is a direct revenue loss. According to downdetector, and later confirmed by the National Lottery, the cause was indeed a DDoS attack, but it is not clear if it was the subject of a ransom, or if it might have been a demonstration of capability ahead of a future threat of attack. Kirill Kasavchenko, principal security technologist at Arbor Networks emailed SC Media UK to comment: “This latest DDoS attack shows that cyber-criminals are still up to old tricks, this time deliberately targeting the National Lottery website at a time of peak demand. We can also see that response plans are often not up to scratch, with the incident lasting 90 minutes. Websites who are unable to contain a DDoS attack like this risk losing their audience to competitors if they are unable to minimise the disruption, so it is essential that organisations expect cyber-attacks and know how they will respond. “All organisations must examine their current DDoS defences, and decide whether their current processes are robust enough to ensure operations will not be halted by a DDoS attack. To guard against such attacks, organisations should implement best current practices for DDoS defence. That includes hardening network infrastructures, ensuring complete visibility of all network traffic, and implementing sufficient DDoS mitigation capacity and capabilities. Those mitigation defences ideally should be a combination of on-premises and cloud-based DDoS mitigation services. It is also crucial that organisations ensure their DDoS defence plan is kept updated and is rehearsed on a regular basis.” Source: https://www.scmagazineuk.com/national-lottery-hit-by-ddos-attack–down-90-mins-at-peak-demand-time/article/697163/

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National Lottery hit by DDoS attack – down 90 mins at peak demand time

US pressured North Korea by overwhelming hackers with data traffic

The US is no stranger to hacking North Korea, but it’s usually in a bid to directly thwart the country’s military ambitions. Now, however, those attacks are being used as a diplomatic strategy. The Washington Post has learned that President Trump ordered a broad pressure campaign against North Korea that led to the US conducting a denial of service attack against North Korea’s spying office, the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The move flooded the RGB’s servers with traffic that effectively strangled their internet access, including the Bureau 121 group responsible for the North’s hacking campaigns. And while it clearly didn’t change Kim Jong Un’s mind, it does appear to have had a practical effect. Reportedly, the initiative was designed to be temporary and only lasted for half a year — Trump signed the order in March, and it ended on September 30th. It wasn’t destructive, either. According to the Post ‘s sources, however, North Korean hackers were complaining about the ability to do their jobs during that period. North Korea certainly isn’t going to get much sympathy. With that said, it raises questions about the use of cyberattacks as a pressure tactic. It no doubt sends the message that the US can cripple a hostile country’s digital warfare capabilities if it wants, but there is the concern that it could escalate an already tense situation. After all, North Korea is the sort of country that claims you can declare war with a tweet — while that’s hyperbolic, it might interpret a denial of service attack as an act of aggression that merits revenge. Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/01/us-launched-dos-attack-against-north-korea-hackers/

UK lotto players quids in: Website knocked offline by DDoS attack

It could be you* The UK National Lottery has apologised for a website outage that left money in their pockets of punters unable to play games on Saturday evening.…

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UK lotto players quids in: Website knocked offline by DDoS attack

CHJ Tech. Teams up with DOSarrest to deliver Internet Security Solutions for the Singapore Government

SINGAPORE, Sept. 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CHJ Technologies Singapore announced today that they have been chosen as one of the 6 approved vendors to supply cloud based DDoS protection and Web Application security services for the Singapore government over the next 3 years. The Singapore Government expects to spend SGD $50m to keep government websites going even under an attack. CHJ is the exclusive distributor of DOSarrest Internet security services in Singapore and is utilizing their DDoS and WAF solutions to satisfy the Singapore government’s security requirements. Linus Choo, Managing Director of CHJ Technologies states “CHJ Technologies has a substantial track record providing cyber security services in Singapore. Having first been awarded DDoS mitigation contracts with the Singapore government in 2014, we are both elated and honored to have been awarded for a second time in this latest tender. We feel that this renewal of our services is a testament to the calibre of services our team provides and our partnership with DOSarrest. “Understanding the strategic importance of cyber security services, we align and integrate perfectly with the investments our government is making in DDoS protection and other cyber security services, this makes the continuation of our collaboration with the government all the more valued. This is a very significant accomplishment for both CHJ Technologies and DOSarrest.” Mark Teolis, CEO of DOSarrest explains “It was a very rigorous process to meet all the requirements of the Singapore government’s security specifications, in the end we beat out many competitors 3 years ago and we did it again this year.” Teolis adds “CHJ Tech is a great match for us, their staff on the ground and customer support paired with our technology is a home run.” Choo adds “We are actively exploring other opportunities in the Asean region as a partner with DOSarrest.“ About DOSarrest Internet Security: DOSarrest, founded in 2007 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, is one of only a couple of companies worldwide to specialize in only cloud based DDoS protection services. Additional Web security services offered are Cloud based W eb A pplication F irewall (WAF) , V ulnerability T esting and O ptimization (VTO), DataCenter Defender – GRE as well as cloud based global load balancing and a simulated DDoS attack Platform. For more information: DOSarrest.com About CHJ Technologies: Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Singapore, we have become one of Asia’s leading and fastest-growing managed cybersecurity service providers. Our expertise and product lines enable organizations to discover, risks and mitigate them. Continually pushing boundaries, we protect our customers’ critical assets and information wherever it lives – in the cloud and on-premises. For more information: http://www.chjtech.com.sg Contact Information: Lew Yong-He +65 6896 7998 sales@chjtech.com.sg Source: https://www.dosarrest.com/news-and-events/chj-tech-teams-up-with-dosarrest-to-deliver-internet-security-solutions-for-the-singapore-government/

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CHJ Tech. Teams up with DOSarrest to deliver Internet Security Solutions for the Singapore Government

Three out of four DDoS attacks target multiple vectors

Three out of every four DDoS attacks employed blended, multi-vector approaches in the second quarter of 2017, according to Nexusguard. Distribution of DDoS attack vectors The quarterly report, which measured more than 8,300 attacks, demonstrated that hackers continued to rely on volumetric attacks to overwhelm system resources. For example, UDP-based attacks increased by 15 percent this quarter, targeting hijacked devices connected to the IoT, and overtaking SYN, HTTP Flood and other popular volumetric attacks in … More ?

DDoS Extortion Group Sends Ransom Demand to Thousands of Companies

A group of DDoS extortionists using the name of Phantom Squad has sent out a massive spam wave to thousands of companies all over the globe, threating DDoS attacks on September 30, if victims do not pay a ransom demand. The emails spreading the ransom demands were first spotted by security researcher Derrick Farmer and the threats appear to have started on September 19 and continued ever since. Hackers looking for small $700 ransoms The emails contain a simple threat, telling companies to pay 0.2 Bitcoin (~$720) or prepare to have their website taken down on September 30. Sample of a Phantom Squad DDoS ransom email Usually, these email threats are sent to a small number of companies one at a time, in order for extortionists to carry out attacks if customers do not pay. This time, this group appears to have sent the emails in a shotgun approach to multiple recipients at the same time, a-la classic spam campaigns distributing other forms of malware. Because of this, several experts who reviewed the emails and ransom demands reached the conclusion that the group does not possess the firepower to launch DDoS attacks on so many targets on the same day, and is most likely using scare tactics hoping to fool victims into paying. Extortionists are not the sharpest tool in the shed The size of this email spam wave is what surprised many experts. Its impact was felt immediately on social media [1, 2, 3, 4] and on webmaster forums, where sysadmins went looking for help and opinions on how to handle the threat. Bleeping Computer reached out to several security companies to get a general idea of the size of this spam wave. “Not sure how widespread it is in terms of volume, but they are certainly spamming a lot of people,” Justin Paine, Head of Trust & Safety at Cloudflare, told Bleeping . “We’ve had 5 customers so far report these ‘Phantom Squad’ emails,” he added. “These geniuses even sent a ransom threat to the noc@ address for a major DDoS mitigation company.” Extortionists are “recycling” email text Radware engineers received similar reports, so much so that the company issued a security alert of its own. Radware security researcher Daniel Smith pointed out that the extortionists may not be the real Phantom Squad, a group of DDoS attackers that brought down various gaming networks in the winter of 2015 [1, 2]. Smith noticed that the ransom note was almost identical to the one used in June 2017 by another group of extortionists using the name Armada Collective. Those extortion attempts through the threat of DDoS attacks also proved to be empty threats, albeit some were successful. “The part that I find interesting is the low ransom request compared to the ransom request last month,” Smith told Bleeping Computer . “Last month a fake RDoS group going by the name Anonymous ransomed several banks for 100 BTC.” Experts don’t believe the group can launch DDoS attacks This shows an evolution in ransom DDoS (RDoS) attacks, with groups moving from targeting small groups of companies within an industry vertical to mass targeting in the hopes of extracting small payments from multiple victims. “This is what the modern RDoS campaign has come to,” Smith also said. “In the spring of 2016 after a lull in RDoS attacks, a group emerged calling themselves the Armada Collective, but their modus operandi had clearly changed. This group claiming to be Armada Collective was no longer targeting a small number of victims but instead were targeting dozens of victims at once without launching a sample attack.” “As a result, these attackers were able to make thousands of dollars by taking advantage of public fear and a notorious name. Several other copycat groups that emerged in 2016 and 2017 also leveraged the names of groups like, New World Hackers, Lizard Squad, LulzSec, Fancy Bear, and Anonymous.” “To launch a series of denial-of-service attacks, this group will require vast resources. Therefore, when a group sends dozens of extortion letters, they typically will not follow through with a cyber-attack,” Smith said. Smith’s opinion is also shared by Paine, who recently tweeted “ransom demands from this group = spam” and “empty threats, zero attacks from this copycat.” Victims should report extortion attempts to authorities Japan CERT has issued a security alert informing companies how to handle the fake demands by reporting the emails to authorities. Today, security researcher Brad Duncan also published an alert on the ISC SANS forums, letting other sysadmins and security researchers know not to believe the ransom threats. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ddos-extortion-group-sends-ransom-demand-to-thousands-of-companies/

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DDoS Extortion Group Sends Ransom Demand to Thousands of Companies

$50m deal to keep government websites going in a cyber attack

Six firms have won a multimillion- dollar bulk tender as Singapore further tightens its defence against sophisticated attacks that aim to disable government websites. The Straits Times understands that the three-year bulk contract which started yesterday is worth about $50 million – around twice the value of the last three-year contract which has lapsed. The deal comes on the heels of StarHub’s broadband outage last year linked to a cyber attack in the United States, and the theft of the personal details of 850 national servicemen and staff at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), discovered in February. The six contractors awarded the contract by GovTech are local telcos Singtel and StarHub, Britain- based telco BT, and Singapore- based tech firms CHJ Technologies, Evvo Labs and Embrio Enterprises. The six firms are expected to keep government websites fully available to the public even when attacks are taking place. This is done by providing distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation services, which will now take into account the threats that took down United States Internet firm Dyn’s services in October last year. Dyn’s service outage, which took down websites such as The New York Times and Spotify, in turn disrupted Web surfing for StarHub’s broadband customers. DDoS attacks work by having thousands of infected computers accessing and overwhelming a targeted site, causing a huge spike in traffic. DDoS mitigation is a set of techniques that differentiates genuine incoming traffic from that sent by hijacked, infected browsers, so that services to genuine users will not be denied. According to tender documents seen by ST, the contractors are also expected to provide new capabilities to combat attacks stemming from software flaws on Internet-facing machines. In early February, Mindef discovered that a vulnerability in its I-net system had been exploited, resulting in the loss of NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and birth dates of 850 personnel. The I-net system provides Mindef staff and national servicemen with Internet access on thousands of dedicated terminals. Cloud security services firm Akamai Technologies’ regional director of product management Amol Mathur said that the new DDoS mitigation capabilities are necessary in an evolving threat landscape where large-scale attacks are being powered by compromised Internet devices such as Web cameras and routers. Dr Chong Yoke Sin, chief of StarHub’s enterprise business group, said it will provide the Singapore Government with its telco- centric security operations as well as the cloud-based mitigation services of its technology partner Nexusguard. Mr Jason Kong, co-founder of Toffs Technologies, the supplier of content delivery back-up services for Embrio Enterprises, said: “Organisations should have a content delivery back-up plan to ensure business is as usual should the main delivery platform suffer an outage.” Last week, the Nanyang Tech- nological University solicited a separate DDoS contract with more stringent requirements to com- bat attacks stemming from software flaws on Internet-facing machines. The university discovered in April this year that it was the victim of an apparent state-sponsored attack aimed at stealing government and research data. The National University of Singapore was similarly attacked at around the same time. Last year, an unnamed government agency also became the victim of a state-sponsored attack, the Cyber Security Agency of Sin- gapore said in a report released last Thursday. Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/tech/50m-deal-to-keep-govt-websites-going-in-a-cyber-attack

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$50m deal to keep government websites going in a cyber attack