DDoS’d virtual server host’s hell continues Linode’s woes continue: the server hosting biz has just run a system-wide password reset on customer accounts after two Linode.com user credentials were discovered “on an external machine.”…
Read more here:
Under-attack Linode resets passwords after logins leak onto web
A group of computer criminals used two separate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to bring down all of the BBC’s websites and Donald Trump’s main campaign site over this past holiday weekend. The story begins on New Year’s Eve, when all BBC sites, including its iPlayer service, went dark for three hours. At the time, the UK-based news organization reported that the outage was the result of a “technical issue”. It later stated that a group calling themselves the “New World Hackers” had claimed credit for launching a DDoS attack against the broadcaster, as a “test of its capabilities” Since then, one of the group’s members who identified himself as “Ownz” took the opportunity to send a screenshot to ZDNet of the web interface that was used to attack the BBC. If the screenshot is legitimate, the group allegedly employed their own tool called BangStresser to launch an attack of up to 602 Gbps – a volume of traffic that well-surpasses the largest attack on record at 334 Gbps, as documented by Arbor Networks in the middle of year. Not untypically, BangStresser is itself protected from DDoS attacks by CloudFlare – one of the popular DDoS mitigation services often deployed by websites keen to protect themselves from attackers. The attack apparently made use of two Amazon Web Services servers, but managed to skirt around the company’s automated misuse detection systems as Ownz explained in an interview with ZDNet : “We have our ways of bypassing Amazon. The best way to describe it is we tap into a few administrative services that Amazon is use to using. The [sic] simply set our bandwidth limit as unlimited and program our own scripts to hide it.” No other information has yet been provided about the attack. But whatever else transpired, the group was sufficiently pleased that they decided to use BangStresser to launch a DDoS against Donald Trump’s official campaign website, donaldjtrump.com, just a few days later. According to Softpedia , Trump’s website went down immediately on Saturday, January 2 and remained dark for several hours until DDoS mitigation solutions were put in place. The attacks, however, remained ongoing throughout the day against mail.trump.com domain, the Trump Organization’s Webmail service. Trump’s camp has yet to officially address the incident. A statement posted on Saturday by Trump’s campaign advisers (and redistributed via HackRead ) attributed the downage to “an unusually high volume of traffic” only. On Monday, Real Forums sat down with members of the group to inquire about their New Year’s exploits. Here’s what they had to say: “Our reasons behind the BBC attack was just a test of our capabilities. Although, the Trump site was the target. He can be very racist. We didn’t mean to cause as much damage as we did to BBC, but for Trump, Yes.” The group goes on to state that it plans to launch additional DDoS attacks against Trump and other large organizations like the BBC . The group also specifically mentions ISIS and the Ku Klux Klan as future targets. We’re not a week into 2016, and we’ve already witnessed DDoS attacks that have succeeded in taking down the websites of major news organizations and U.S. political candidates. It just goes to show that while malware is on the rise, DDoS attacks are not going anywhere in the New Year. As we all get back to work, we should therefore take the time to make sure our enterprises have the necessary DDoS mitigation technologies in place. Source: https://www.grahamcluley.com/2016/01/ddos-gang-takes-bbc-websites-donald-trumps-campaign-site-holiday-weekend/
Continue reading here:
DDoS gang takes down BBC websites, Donald Trump’s campaign site over holiday weekend
Three cyber-security firms could not handle the attack Rutgers University’s IT department has managed to restore all services after a large-scale DDoS attack kept some of its systems down for four days between December 24 and December 28. This is not the first time Rutgers University has been hit with a DDoS attack, having already reported on a similar incident back at the end of September . Earlier this year, at the end of March and start of May, university staff also suffered four similar attacks, with the longest one lasting for five full days. Sixth time this year, nobody has claimed responsibility yet The first five attacks were claimed by a hacker that went by the name of Exfocus, who admitted in an interview that he was hired via an underground forum to carry out the DDoS bombardment, and later paid in Bitcoin. Unlike in the case of the first five attacks, Exfocus has not come forward to claim responsibility. The Rutgers IT staff said the attack targeted the sakai.rutgers.edu URL, the University’s Sakai portal. Sakai is an open source, self-hosted Java-based course learning environment used primarily by academic institutions. The DDoS attack did not affect student activities since students are away for Christmas break, which started on December 24 and will end on January 5. A $3 million investment in IT security systems did not help at all Last August, Rutgers management spent $3 million / €2.67 million on security measures to bolster their online platform. According to NJ.com, the University hired three cyber-security firms. The unplanned investment was motivated by the March and May attacks. Despite this, the University’s DDoS mitigation provider has failed to live up to its job, both in September and in this most recent four-day-long attack. In his interview, Exfocus said that he controlled a botnet of 85,000 machines, and was able to launch DDoS attacks of around 25 Gbps, which is considered to be of a medium scale. The proper law enforcement agencies have been notified of the attack. Softpedia has reached out to Exfocus on Twitter. We’ll update the article if we uncover any new information. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/rutgers-university-suffers-sixth-ddos-attack-this-year-498229.shtml
See more here:
Rutgers University Suffers Sixth DDoS Attack This Year
Malicious guest could eat your virtual rigs from the inside The Xen Project has reported a new bug, XSA-169 , that means “A malicious guest could cause repeated logging to the hypervisor console, leading to a Denial of Service attack.”…
Link:
Xen Project blunder blows own embargo with premature bug report
Public sector apparently suffers most from idle P2Pers Updated There’s high degree of correlation between organisations with P2P activity and system compromises via malware infections, according to a new study by BitSight Technologies.…
Excerpt from:
Security sweep firm links botnet infestation and file sharing
The online hacktivist Anonymous has claimed the responsibility for a massive 40Gbps DDoS attack on Turkish DNS Servers under NIC.tr — The reason behind the attack is that Turkey is allegedly supporting and aiding the Daesh or ISIS/ISIL terrorist group. In a video uploaded by Anonymous, the hacktivists said that their attack on Turkish servers was part of their ongoing operation #OpISIS. According to the video message, “We won’t accept that Erdogan, the leader of Turkey, will help ISIS any longer. The news media has already stated that Turkey’s Internet has been the victim of massive DDOS attacks . This lead Turkey to shut down it’s internet borders and deny anybody outside the country to access Turkish websites.” The hacktivists also warned the government that if Turkey didn’t stop aiding Daesh or ISIS the attacks will continue and target airports, banks, government and military servers. “If you don’t stop supporting ISIS, we will continue attacking your internet, your root DNS, your banks and take your government sites down. After the root DNS we will start to hit your airports, military assets and private state connections. We will destroy your critical banking infrastructure. Stop this insanity now Turkey. Your fate is in your own hands,” said Anonymous. The cyber attack on Turkish root DNS servers took place last week which forced 40,000 .tr domains to go offline. Though the targeted domains were back online they same day however the accesses to those sites was kept limited. The state of Turkey has been accused of aiding and buying oil from the Daesh terrorist group. Some also accuse Turkey of being a safe passage for the groups recruitment in Syria. Source: https://www.hackread.com/anonymous-40-gbps-ddos-attack-on-turkish-servers/
More:
Anonymous Claims Responsibility For 40 Gbps DDoS Attack on Turkish Servers
Internet service in Boston was disrupted on Tuesday in what is being called a “minor act of cybervandalism,” according to the Boston Herald . The outage, affecting city agencies and the police and fire departments, was “short, but widespread,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that caused computers worldwide to redirect network traffic to City Hall computers is cited as the method by which web connections were shuttered. While Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city’s CIO, dismissed the attack as “a minor act of cybervandalism,” the incident is another example of an attack method becoming increasingly common and illustrates the vulnerabilities enterprises face on a daily basis. Experts explained that as the attack harvests no data, it might have been retribution or an attacker’s attempt to gain notoriety. Franklin-Hodge said his team was able to restore service within 20 minutes. Source: http://www.scmagazine.com/boston-officials-call-ddos-attack-on-internet-service-a-minor-act/article/460203/
Excerpt from:
Boston internet service disrupted briefly by DDoS attack
Move follows 45-minute attack last Thursday Web host Moonfruit last night began putting its systems back online after taking down customers’ sites in order to upgrade defences in the face of a threatened DDoS attack, with the firm blaming a recent assault (which prompted the self-takedown) on the Armada Collective crew.…
Originally posted here:
Web host Moonfruit defies Armada DDoS crew … by (temporarily) defeating itself
Moonfruit, a free website builder, has taken thousands of business and personal websites offline following a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The company’s users are disappointed by the slow pace at which it has communicated the problem, and the way it’s being handled. The company said it had been threatened with a cyber-attack and had decided to make its customers’ websites unavailable for “up to 12 hours” to make infrastructure changes. In a statement on the Moonfruit website it was said that the company was actually attacked by a hacker group called the Armada Collective, which DDoSed the site for about 45 mintes. One business owner told the BBC it was “very bad timing”. Film-maker Reece de Ville said: “They have been slow to communicate via their website what is going on.” “I’m going to have hundreds of people finding my site today but not being able to access it. I could be losing out on a lot of money from potential clients, and they may not come back if they think the company has gone. It’s incredibly bad timing, especially for businesses selling Christmas cards and gifts on their website.” In an email to its customers, the company apologised for giving them “short notice” that their websites would be offline. “We have been working with law enforcement agencies regarding this matter and have spared no time or expense in ensuring we complete the work as quickly as possible,” the company’s director, Matt Casey, said in the official statement. Industry reaction Ron Symons, regional director at cyber security specialist A10 Networks said: “Moonfruit has responded in the best possible way to this threat by taking its services offline. As the attack it suffered last week shows, distributed denial of service (DDoS) is extremely difficult to prevent. More worryingly, DDoS attacks frequently act as smokescreens hiding more invasive attacks as hackers exploit unguarded system backdoors to steal sensitive data. “By making this bold decision to pre-empt another incident, Moonfruit stands a much better chance of protecting its clients’ private data. The shutdown may be inconvenient now, but by ensuring its infrastructure is equipped to deal with today’s increasingly powerful cyber attacks Moonfruit is acting in the best interests of those using its services.” SEE ALSO: Throwback Thursday: Why Apple is called Apple Dave Larson, Chief Operating Officer at Corero Network Security said: “Unfortunately, the sheer size and scale of hosting or data center operator network infrastructures and their massive customer base presents an incredibly attractive attack surface due to the multiple entry points and significant aggregate bandwidth that acts as a conduit for a damaging and disruptive DDoS attack. “As enterprises of all sizes increasingly rely on hosted critical infrastructure or services, they are placing themselves at even greater risk from these devastating DDoS attacks – even as an indirect target.” Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2015/12/14/moonfruit-takes-down-thousands-of-sites-after-a-ddos-attack/#ixzz3uLEOSJCP
Visit site:
Moonfruit takes down thousands of sites after a DDoS attack
Hacktivist group Anonymous has continued to add to its list of targets, with controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump the latest in the crosshairs. Following Trump’s radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the US, Twitter accounts linked to the group declared war. The OpTrump campaign launched last night (9 December) with the first piece of business taking down Trump’s website www.trumptowerny.com for several hours by hitting it with a DDOS (distributed-denial-of-service) attack, which crashed the site. One Twitter user posted a picture of the hack, claiming the site was “almost down”. Anonymous posted a video online in response to Trump’s comments and warned of the repercussions of his words. “Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you want to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. This policy is going to have a huge impact. This is what Isis wants. The more Muslims feel sad the more Isis feels they can recruit them. The more the United States appears to be targeting Muslims, not just radical Muslims you can be sure Isis will be putting that on their social media campaign,” said a masked member of the hacktivist group. While Anonymous has yet to officially claim responsibility for the DDOS attack, Twitter users showed full support of the group and its campaign. In the grand scheme of things this was a fairly tame attack, as the website is still running as normal at the time of writing, but it did serve as a digital slap to show this could be the first of many targeted operations against Trump. Anonymous is also busy taking on Islamic State by organising an official Isis Trolling Day called “Day of Rage” on 11 December, where it is encouraging an uprising of social media users to post content mocking the terror group. They issued a list of actions in a statement that includes reporting accounts of Isis sympathisers, posting mocking photos and use mocking hashtags. There will also be organised demonstrations held around the world. Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/optrump-anonymous-declares-war-donald-trump-ddos-attack-following-muslim-ban-speech-1532739
Read more here:
OpTrump: Anonymous declares war on Donald Trump with DDOS attack following Muslim ban speech