Tag Archives: blocking-ddos

Indian ISPs targeted in Anonymous censorship protest

The websites of Indian government-run communications company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and the Internet Service Providers Association of India faced DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks from Anonymous on Wednesday as some Internet service providers continue to block file-sharing websites following a court order. ISPs are only following the orders of the court which are supreme, said Rajesh Chharia, president of ISPAI, who was doubtful that the association’s website had been affected by the hackers. The Indian arm of Anonymous previously attacked some government websites, and those of some political parties. Last month, users reported that the hackers tinkered with the service of a large ISP, Reliance Communications, redirecting its users from sites like Facebook and Twitter to a protest page. The hackers also claimed to have attacked the website and servers of Reliance, and got access to a large list of URLs blocked by the company. Reliance denied its servers were hacked. The attacks follow a March court order directing ISPs to prevent a newly released local movie from being available online in pirated versions. Some ISPs blocked some file-sharing sites altogether, rather than any offending URLs. The measures taken by the ISPs have differed depending on their interpretation of the order, Chharia said. Some websites such as The Pirate Bay continue to be blocked by some ISPs and carried the message, “This website/URL has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to Court orders or on the Directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications.” Pastebin is also not accessible through some ISPs. Internet service providers are against censorship, and also against piracy, Chharia said. “It is up to the government and various groups to come to a resolution,” he added. The responsibility of intermediaries has been a controversial issue in India, with some Internet companies including Google and Facebook sued in court late last year for objectionable content found on their sites. Their websites have been attacked as blocks on some file-sharing sites continue Anonymous meanwhile plans on June 9 what it describes as non-violent protests across many cities in India against censorship of the Internet in the country. It claims to have already received police permission for some of the protests. The scope of the protests has widened to include demands for changes in the India’s Information Technology Act, which among other things allows the government to block websites under certain conditions, and also allows the removal of online content by notice to ISPs. The government is also in the process of framing rules that will put curbs on freedom on social media, according to the hacker group. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227804/Indian_ISPs_targeted_in_Anonymous_censorship_protest

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Indian ISPs targeted in Anonymous censorship protest

Counting the cost of a DDoS attack

In the past month, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the Leveson inquiry website, Visa and Virgin Media have all been hit by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Much had been made of the motives for such attacks, and the methods that attackers use, but what impact do they have on the victim’s finances? John Pescatore, analyst at research firm Gartner, told Computing that there were three main costs associated with attacks. “There is the cost of the outage, as it means that a business’s customers cannot reach them through the internet. Then there is the cost of making the attack stop – and, often, a third cost in the form of a potential extortion fee,” he said. Obviously losses vary, depending on how much revenue is generated directly from a company’s web presence. John Roberts, head of managed services at MSP Redstone, said: “If a betting organisation trades £600m a year – or £2m a day in revenue terms – and 50 per cent of that comes from the web, then they are losing £1m a day.” Any web-dependent organisation within the global 1,000 might incur similar losses, he added. But there are some less obvious victims of these blunt-instrument attacks. “A Scottish football club who were playing in a European match had its website taken down by the opposing teams’ fans with a DDoS attack. The club was not able to generate significant revenue, because a number of its customers were signed up to stream live games on a monthly fee basis. So an organisation as innocuous as a football club can lose hundreds of thousands of pounds as well,” Roberts said. Public-sector bodies can also suffer substantial financial damage through loss of productivity. “There is a cost implication for local government as people will be looking to procure services over the internet. If those services are unavailable, public-sector staff will receive a lot more incoming phone calls,” he said. Other repercussions are harder to assess and quantify. For example, businesses can suffer reputational damage from DDoS attacks, said Andrew Kellett, analyst at research firm Ovum. “With [the attack on] the Serious Organised Crime Authority [SOCA], the issue was that this was not the first time it had been exposed to a DDoS attack. You would have thought that enough resilience would have been built after the first attack to deal with something similar a year later,” he said. But Gartner’s Pescatore said that reputational damage is often less severe than many organisations fear; customers are used to websites not working for any number of other reasons that are not related to DDoS attacks. “There is reputational damage if the website is defaced or if the website is attacked and customers’ financial information is disclosed, but DDoS generally does not have much of a reputational impact,” he argued. Kellett disagreed and emphasised that reputational damage can itself cause financial loss to enterprises, as their customers opt for an alternative service from a similar provider. He warned that DDoS attacks could also be used as cover for a simultaneous assault on the targeted business. “The noise around DDoS attacks can be used to hide another backdoor-style assault, such as data being stolen from within the organisation. “There is an example of clerical records, including credit card information, being stolen from an organisation when a DDoS attack was taking place. It was a hacktivist attack where the credit card details were used to make donations to a charity. For any organisation protecting those details it would be both embarrassing and expensive, as they could lose customers and have to repay anyone who has had money taken from their accounts,” he said. Pescatore said that, of the three costs typically associated with DDoS attacks, extortion attempts have reduced significantly. “In the last two years, businesses have not paid off extortion attempts and are focusing on putting in place services to mitigate DDoS attacks. Several years ago there were incidents where it was deemed less expensive to pay off the attackers as they would only be asking for €5,000,” he said. Source: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/analysis/2181680/analysis-counting-cost-ddos-attack

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Counting the cost of a DDoS attack

White House unveils initiatives to combat botnets

The Obama administration on Wednesday revealed new initiatives to combat botnets, believed to present one of the greatest threats to the integrity of the internet. Botnets are employed by cyber thieves to gain control of computers to perform illegal activities, including siphoning off assets, initiating denial of service (DoS) attacks, which could shut down a targeted website, or distributing spam. The initiatives stem from a voluntary public-private partnership between the White House Cybersecurity Office and the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security (DHS), which coordinate with private industry to lead the Industry Botnet Group (IBG), a group of nine trade associations and nonprofit organizations representing thousands of companies. “The issue of botnets is larger than any one industry or country,” said White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt at an event to announce the program (Schmidt recently announced his resignation). Also present at the event were Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Patrick Gallagher, and a number of industry CEOs. According to an administration official who spoke with SCMagazineUS.com on Friday, “industry deserves credit for the real work in getting this done.” He said that the strategy goes back to a Commerce greenpaper on cyber security looking at areas where the government saw a solution in the private sector that could alleviate the botnet problem, but was not gaining traction and collective action. “Companies didn’t want to invest if other companies weren’t,” the administration official said. A call went out from the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security to the private sector to find ways to build incentives for companies to implement best practices around botnets. “We were pleasantly surprised to find so much agreement,” the official said. A series of meetings at the White House followed, led by Schmidt, which led to the writing of IBG’s “Principles for Voluntary Efforts to Reduce the Impact of Botnets in Cyberspace,” he said. “Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility – the responsibility of government, our private sector partners and every computer user,” Napolitano said at Wednesday’s event, according to a release. “DHS has set out on a path to build a cyber system that supports secure and resilient infrastructure, encourages innovation, and protects openness, privacy and civil liberties.” The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) was also at the event to support the IBG’s principles. “We have a shared responsibility to commit resources to address the growing threats from botnets, which threaten to undermine the digital economy,” Craig Spiezle, executive director and president, Online Trust Alliance, said in a statement. “Preserving online trust and confidence needs to be a priority and the broad adoption of the Industry Botnet Group principles is an important step toward protecting the internet.” Source: http://www.scmagazine.com/white-house-unveils-initiatives-to-combat-botnets/article/243712/

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White House unveils initiatives to combat botnets

DoS crashes updated iPads, iPhones

A denial of service attack has been disclosed in the latest version of Apple iOS. The attack targets Safari in iOS 5.1.1 and a proof of concept was published online. Alienvault security researcher Alberto Ortega said the attack may also affect previous versions of the Apple operating system. The attack was successfully demonstrated on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Ortega said the error was a “step to achieve a real exploitation”. “iOS has a lot of mitigations to avoid successful exploitation,” Ortega said. “This software has errors and holes but you will need to bypass those hard mitigations and find more weaknesses to have something “usable’.” Ortega reported the error to Apple at the time of disclosure but had no response from the notoriously security silent company. “When JavaScript function match() gets a big buffer as parameter the browser unexpectedly crashes. By extension, the function search() is affected too,” Ortega said in the advisory. Source: http://www.crn.com.au/News/302620,dos-crashes-updated-ipads-iphones.aspx

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DoS crashes updated iPads, iPhones

US Firms Are Over-Reliant on Firewalls to Protect Against DDoS Attacks

By John E Dunn, techworld.com More than half of US businesses still rely on conventional firewalls or intrusion prevention systems to shield themselves from the scourge of DDoS attacks, a survey by services firm Neustar has found. The survey of 1,000 US-based IT professionals across a range of industries found that only 3 percent were using DDoS mitigation systems or services, with a quarter claiming they had no protection whatsoever against the threat. Eleven percent used intrusion detection/prevention systems even though such technology is (in common with firewalls, routers and switches) widely seen as an inadequate defence against contemporary DDoS bombardment, Neustar said. “Experts point out that during DDoS attacks these ‘defences’ become part of the problem. They quickly become bottlenecks, helping achieve an attacker’s goal of slowing or shutting you down. Moreover, firewalls won’t repel attacks on the application layer, an increasingly popular DDoS vector,” the authors note. A third of those questioned said DDoS attacks lasted for a day or more with 11 percent mentioning over a week. There didn’t appear to be any clear pattern that related attack length to industry segment, except that the travel industry appeared slightly more vulnerable to attacks lasting longer than 24 hours. Two thirds said the direct cost of all this DDoS was about $10,000 (£6,200) per hour or $240,000 per day, with 13 percent reckoning it as being $100,000 per hour. The most vulnerable to high costs was retail, a sector that depends on online sales to generate cashflow, followed by finance. The main anxiety in advance of DDoS attacks was the negative impact on customers, ahead of brand reputation damage and even direct costs. Companies such as Neustar have a vested interest in talking up the difficulty of dealing with DDoS the better to market protection services. However, the company said it accepted that there was no simple answer to countering DDoS attacks; even the best protection systems available still required trained, skilled staff to deploy and manage them. “With attacks becoming more sophisticated – mixing brute-force bandwidth assaults and surgical strikes on applications – in-depth knowledge and experience make a huge difference. There is no ‘magic box’ that can out-think attackers on its own.” Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/255772/us_firms_are_overreliant_on_firewalls_to_protect_against_ddos_attacks.html

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US Firms Are Over-Reliant on Firewalls to Protect Against DDoS Attacks

Check Point Survey Reveals More Than Half of Targeted Attacks Reported Were Driven by Financial Fraud

Denial of Service Attacks and Botnets Pose Increased Risk to Organizations, With Successful Attacks Costing Businesses Over $100,000 per Incident REDWOOD CITY, CA, May 22, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Check Point(R) Software Technologies Ltd. CHKP +0.04% , the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced the results of a new survey revealing 65 percent of organizations who experienced targeted attacks report the hacker’s motivation was driven by financial fraud, and resulted in business disruption and the loss of sensitive information, including intellectual property and trade secrets. The report, The Impact of Cybercrime on Businesses, also showed companies reporting an average of 66 new security attack attempts per week, with successful incidents costing businesses anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000. Among the list of top threats, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks were said to pose the greatest risk to organizations. Cybercriminals today are increasingly leveraging malware, bots and other forms of sophisticated threats to attack organizations for various reasons — from financial gain and disruption of business operations to data theft or attacks driven by political agendas. Regardless of motivation, new variants of malware are being generated on a daily basis, often targeting multiple sites and organizations to increase the likelihood of an attack’s initial success and the potential for threats to spread quietly throughout an organization. “Cybercriminals are no longer isolated amateurs. They belong to well-structured organizations, often employing highly-skilled hackers to execute targeted attacks, many of whom receive significant amounts of money depending on the region and nature of the attack,” said Tomer Teller, security evangelist and researcher at Check Point Software Technologies. “Cybercrime has become a business. With bot toolkits for hackers selling today for the mere price of $500, it gives people insight into how big the problem has become, and the importance of implementing preemptive protections to safeguard critical assets.” According to the survey, SQL injections were cited as the most serious types of attacks organizations had experienced in the last two years, and more than one third of respondents had each experienced APTs, botnet infections and DoS attacks. Following investigations of targeted threats, respondents reported the biggest consequences were a disruption to their business and the loss of sensitive data and intellectual property. “For the most part, the goal of attackers is to obtain valuable information. These days, credit card data shares space on the shelves of virtual hacking stores with items such as employee records and Facebook or email log-ins, as well as zero-day exploits that can be stolen and sold on the black market ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000,” added Teller. “Unfortunately, the rate of cybercrime seems to be climbing as businesses experience a surge in Web 2.0 use and mobile computing in corporate environments — giving hackers more channels of communication and vulnerable entry points into the network.” “Companies are constantly facing new and costly security risks from both internal and external sources that can jeopardize the business,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “While the types of threats and level of concern companies have may vary across regions, the good news is that security awareness is rising. Across the board, C-level executives reported high levels of concern about targeted attacks and planned to implement security precautions, technology and training to mitigate the risk of targeted attacks.” Key Findings from the Report: – Primary Motivations of Targeted Threats – Following investigations of cyber-attacks within organizations surveyed, the majority of respondents reported financial fraud (65%) as the cybercriminal’s primary motivation, followed by intent to disrupt business operations (45%) and stealing customer data (45%). Approximately 5% of security attacks were estimated to have been driven by political or ideological agendas. – Cybercrime comes in all shapes and forms – On average, respondents reported SQL Injections as the most serious security attacks experienced in the last two years, and more than one third of respondents said they experienced APTs (35%), botnet Infections (33%) and DoS attacks (32%). – Targeted attacks continue to be costly – Survey participants estimated a single, successful targeted attack costing an average of $214,000 USD. In Germany, respondents reported a higher average estimate of $300,000 per incident, and Brazil with a lower average of $100,000 per incident. Estimates include variables such as forensic investigation, investments in technology and brand recovery costs. – Most Common Threat Vectors – When asked to rank employee activities that pose the greatest risk, all regions unanimously cited the use of mobile devices — including smartphones and tablet PCs — as the biggest concern, followed by social networks and removable media devices such as USB sticks. – Current technology investments – While the majority of companies have important security building blocks in place, such as Firewall and Intrusion Prevention solutions, less than half of companies surveyed have advanced protections to fight botnets and APTs. However, the majority of organizations in Germany and the US are beginning to deploy solutions more specific to addressing cyber-risk such as anti-bot, application control and threat intelligence systems. – Security Training and Awareness – Only 64% of companies say they have current training and awareness programs in place to prevent targeted attacks. Cybercriminals are focused on valuable data that is worth the time and risk; therefore, it has become imperative for enterprises to focus their security efforts there as well. Businesses should start by identifying critical data and assets and enforce multi-layered threat prevention. While thousands of companies have already been targets of bots and advanced threats, businesses have the responsibility to stop it from spreading. For more information about how Check Point helps customers mitigate the risk of cybercrime, visit: http://www.checkpoint.com/campaigns/r75.40/index.html . The report, The Impact of Cybercrime on Businesses, surveyed 2,618 C-level executives and IT security administrators in the US, United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong and Brazil. The survey sample represents organizations of all sizes and across multiple industries, including financial, industrial, defense, retail, healthcare and education. For more information and to view the full report, visit: http://www.checkpoint.com/products/downloads/whitepapers/ponemon-cybercrime-2012.pdf . About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. ( www.checkpoint.com ), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, provides customers with uncompromised protection against all types of threats, reduces security complexity and lowers total cost of ownership. Check Point first pioneered the industry with FireWall-1 and its patented stateful inspection technology. Today, Check Point continues to develop new innovations based on the Software Blade Architecture, providing customers with flexible and simple solutions that can be fully customized to meet the exact security needs of any organization. Check Point is the only vendor to go beyond technology and define security as a business process. Check Point 3D Security uniquely combines policy, people and enforcement for greater protection of information assets and helps organizations implement a blueprint for security that aligns with business needs. Customers include tens of thousands of organizations of all sizes, including all Fortune and Global 100 companies. Check Point’s award-winning ZoneAlarm solutions protect millions of consumers from hackers, spyware and identity theft. SOURCE: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. mailto:press@us.checkpoint.com mailto:ir@us.checkpoint.com http://www.marketwatch.com/story/check-point-survey-reveals-more-than-half-of-targeted-attacks-reported-were-driven-by-financial-fraud-2012-05-22

http://www.spamfighter.com/News-17155-Data-finds-over-1-m-UK-Home-PCs-Belonging-to-Botnets.htm

Data finds over 1 m UK Home PCs Belonging to Botnets The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has reported that a Dutch security researchers’ group trying to determine methods by which compromising of home PCs can be lessened from getting criminally used, recently, discovered that crime botnets seized over 1m home computers in UK.

Researchers Show How Easy It Is To Infiltrate Facebook

A new paper being presented next month at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) shows easy it is to infiltrate Facebook and harvest valuable user data. Botnets, networks of hijacked computers controlled remotely for criminal gain or spreading propaganda, have been aggravating cybersecurity professionals for years. The near-billion people connected to social networks has made Facebook and Twitter the new juicy targets for similar schemes

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Researchers Show How Easy It Is To Infiltrate Facebook

Is There a Zombie On Your Network?

When some people hear about DDoS attacks and botnets containing thousands of zombie hosts, they think it could never happen on their network. While it is true that most of the recent attacks on websites were directed at high profile names, other networks can host the systems responsible for the attacks. In other cases your neighbors could gain access to your network via wireless connections and use it for sending email.

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Is There a Zombie On Your Network?