Tag Archives: ddos-defense

Recognizing the New Face of Cyber-Security

Threats, risks and dangers related to cyber-security are changing. CIOs must respond with a well-defined strategy and the right mix of processes and tools. Over the past few years, digital technologies have rippled through the business world and unleashed unprecedented innovation and disruption. Yet today’s technology framework also has put businesses in the crosshairs and created new levels of risk. No longer are cyber-threats thwarted by clearly defined perimeters such as firewalls. No longer are malware and cyber-attacks blocked by traditional security tools designed to identify specific viruses and code. “It’s an entirely different landscape,” observes Oswin Deally, vice president of cyber-security at consulting firm Capgemini. To be sure, mobility, clouds, the internet of things (IoT) and the increasingly interconnected nature of business and IT systems have radically changed the stakes. There’s a growing need for security transformation. Yet, at the same time, attacks are becoming more insidious and sophisticated. Phishing, spear-phishing, whaling, ransomware, hacking, hacktivism and corporate espionage are now mainstream problems. Data breaches and DDoS attacks are a daily concern. “Cyber-security has moved from a compliance and regulatory topic to front-page headline news,” says Dan Logan, director of enterprise and security architecture for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). No Space Is Safe The scope of today’s cyber-security challenge is mind-boggling. Gartner predicts that more than 8.4 billion IoT devices will be used in 2017, and the number will swell to more than 20 billion by 2020. Meanwhile, 74 percent of organizations now store some, if not all, sensitive data in the public cloud, according to a February 2017 Intel Security study. Not surprisingly, the stakes are growing, and achieving digital transformation while ensuring security is not a simple task. An October 2016 Ponemon Institute study found that the average cost of cyber-crime to a large organization in the United States rose to more than $17 million in 2016. An interconnected world with intertwined data means that threats can come from anywhere at any time. Business disruption, information loss, a diminished brand image and revenue, and damage to equipment are constant risks. Nevertheless, organizations are struggling to keep up. Ponemon points out that only 39 percent of companies deploy advanced backup and recovery operations, though it reduces the average cost of cyber-crime by nearly $2 million. Similarly, only 28 percent of companies have a formal information governance program, though this typically reduces the cost of cyber-crime by nearly $1 million. Capgemini’s Deally says that a starting point for dealing with today’s threat landscape is to recognize that there are two primary areas to focus on: business-driven events and threat-driven events. The former revolves around things like digital commerce, innovation, intellectual property, products and supply chains that present targets and create risks for the enterprise. The latter encompasses attack methods and vectors, including email, mobile devices, the IoT, and other systems and software. “It is becoming more and more of a borderless world where the devices that drive productivity also represent risk,” he points out. CIOs and other enterprise leaders must understand business and technology intersection points and how they introduce risks at various levels—from application security to APIs and network design to clouds. It’s also important to clearly understand business and data assets and identify priorities in terms of value, sensitivity and risk. Not all data is created equal and not all systems require equal protection. This approach, when layered over specific industry risks, begins to deliver some clarity about how and where to focus a cyber-security strategy and select the right protections and processes. o be sure, cyber-security must take a multilayered approach, and it must focus on defense-in-depth. One of today’s challenges is that intruders may gain entry to a network through a vulnerability or breach and worm their way through systems and files over a period of weeks, months or years. These advanced persistent threats (APTs) use multiple tools, technologies and methods to take intrusions to a deeper and more dangerous level. In some cases, the intruders may never make their presence known. They simply pull information—everything from employee or customer data to intellectual property—to perpetuate attacks that monetize their efforts. Secure Horizons CIOs and other enterprise leaders must ultimately focus on strategies that rely on multiple tools, technologies and methods to address the problem on several fronts. This may include everything from reviewing privileges and reexamining authentication methods to analyzing coding practices and reviewing the way encryption is used for data at rest and in transit. It could also address everything from vendor relationships to coding practices. For example, as organizations migrate to DevOps, it’s possible to use automated code scanning to detect vulnerabilities before software goes live. In addition, emerging cyber-security tools use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning or deep learning, along with analytics, to detect unusual behavior and patterns. If an employee logs in at an unusual time from an unknown device or IP address, the system may require re-authentication. However, TCS’ Logan also stresses the urgency of employee education and training. Many of today’s breaches are caused by inattentive employees, sometimes even those in the C-suite, who click a link and infect a system with malware, including ransomware. In other cases, employees circumvent policies because they interfere with their work, or they turn to shadow IT and rogue applications to complete work easier or faster. “Ongoing employee education about phishing—and the use of anti-phishing campaigns that send test emails to users and then respond to clicks with just-in-time education—is an effective addition to employee security awareness efforts,” Logan says. Likewise, intelligence sharing services can help organizations identify new risks quickly. In the end, Logan says that a simple mnemonic is useful for security transformation: ARM. This translates to assess, remediate and monitor. Best-practice organizations embed cyber-security into the foundation of day-to-day IT operations. They have robust backup and recovery systems in place to guard against ransomware and other problems. They handle basic blocking and tackling but also examine how more advanced tools, technologies and practices can boost protection. To be sure, the road to security transformation is long and winding. “A world-class organization must excel at the basics of identity management, vulnerability management, configuration management, incident management, incident response, backup and recovery,” Logan explains. Capgemini’s Deally adds: “From a CIO’s perspective, it’s essential to look at what are you doing from a business perspective and build security protections from there. The most important question—and the one to work backward from in every case—is, ‘How can I best mitigate risk?’ Source: http://www.cioinsight.com/security/recognizing-the-new-face-of-cyber-security.html

Read More:
Recognizing the New Face of Cyber-Security

UK nuclear stations on terror alert for cyber attacks

The cyber security industry has been urged to co-operate with government to protect UK critical national infrastructure from cyber attacks. UK security services have reportedly told nuclear power stations to bolster their cyber defences in the face of increased threats. Government officials have warned that terrorists, foreign spies and “hacktivists” are looking to exploit “vulnerabilities” in the nuclear industry’s internet defences, according to the Telegraph. UK energy minister Jesse Norman is quoted as saying that nuclear plants must make sure that they “remain resilient to evolving cyber threats”. However, he said the government is fully committed to defending the UK against cyber threats, and that the Civil Nuclear Cyber Securty Strategypublished in February 2017 sets out ways to ensure that the civil nuclear sector can defend against, recover from and remain resilient to evolving cyber threats. According to the strategy, the volume and complexity of cyber attacks against the UK are growing and the range of actors is widening. “The threat is becoming increasingly global and asymmetric. Both states and non-state actors can use easily-available cyber tools for destructive purposes,” the strategy states. The strategy sets out a voluntary roadmap to enable organisations in the civil nuclear sector to meet the increasing threat from cyber, and will support the development of cyber security capability of the sector, ensuring organisations will be able to comply with current and new regulation as well as being able to recover from compromises. However, for this to be achieved, the strategy said civil nuclear sector needs to work as a partnership between the government, regulator and industry, with clear roles and responsibilities which are understood and agreed. The strategy warns that the nuclear industry has to do more to protect itself, saying current mechanisms for sharing information in relation to vulnerabilities and how compromises have been addressed will need to be strengthened and enhanced to ensure good practice is shared, and continuous improvement can be made. In November 2016, veteran US investigative reporter Ted Koppel said a cyber attack on the US power grid is likely, but preparations for such an event are not up to scratch. “We are our own worst enemies,” he told Intel Security’s annual Focus conference in Las Vegas, saying that despite the risk of a cyber attack blackout, the US is unprepared for the consequences. Peter Carlisle, vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Thales e-Security believes cyber attacks against critical national infrastructure are set to increase dramatically as criminals develop “increasingly heinous methods” to jeopardise the UK’s national security. “From power stations to the transport network, the risk to the public remains severe, especially if hackers are able to gain access to electronic systems. “To tackle this, the security industry must stand shoulder to shoulder with the government to protect data and critical infrastructure from attack, and ensure hostile forces never have the opportunity to do us harm,” he said. Malcolm Murphy, technology director at network management firm Infoblox said attacks against IT networks are becoming increasingly common, and, if carried out against critical national infrastructure, can represent a significant threat to national security. “In addition to the damage caused to the networks themselves, a DDoS [distributed denial of service] attack on an organisation’s domain name system [DNS] can be used to prevent communication of and around the attacks, causing confusion and panic as seen in the attack on the Ukraine power grid in 2015,” he said. “The DNS is a mission-critical piece of network infrastructure used by all organisations without which networks cannot function. Often inadequately protected by traditional security solutions, it remains a vulnerable network component frequently used as an attack vector by cyber-criminals. “With botnets available for hire for relatively small sums of money online, DNS-based DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly easy for cyber criminals to carry out, and in their efforts to defend the country against the growing cyber threat, organisations responsible for the security of critical infrastructure should be making DNS protection a top priority,” he said. Most UK businesses have little visibility or control over their DNS servers and services, even though they are a key component of businesses’ infrastructure and security profile, a report published in March 2017 revealed. Only 8% of companies polled claim to have full visibility across all areas of DNS, including frequency of dropped requests, cache poisoning, latency and overall load on DNS infrastructure, rendering it impossible to ensure a consistent service to internal and external internet users. Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450416097/UK-nuclear-stations-on-terror-alert-for-cyber-attacks

See the article here:
UK nuclear stations on terror alert for cyber attacks

Cyber-Attacks Cost Almost Twice What You May Think

What do cyber-attacks have in common with hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes? All are realities in our world. No matter how common or uncommon they may be, failing to prepare for any of them will lead to costs that could be unbearable—or worse. These were the thoughts of Nikhil Taneja, MD Radware as he shared the company’s annual Global Application & Network Security Report 2016-17 that identifies major attack trends of 2016, outlines industry preparedness, and offers predictions for in 2017. The report finds that 98% of Organizations Experienced Attacks in 2016, indicating that cyber-attacks became a way of life for nearly every organization in 2016. This trend will continue in 2017, predicts Radware. While understanding some crucial aspects such as The threat landscape—who the attackers are, their motives and tools, what will be the potential impact on businesses, including associated costs of different cyber-attacks, how a company’s preparedness level compares to other organizations etc, the report comes up with some of the key findings: – IoT Botnets Open the 1TBps Floodgates- This exemplifies why preparing for “common” attacks is no longer enough. This event introduced sophisticated vectors, such as GRE floods and DNS water torture. – Cyber-Ransom Proves Easiest, Most Lucrative Tool for Cybercriminals- Almost all ransom events have a different attack vector, technique or angle. There are hundreds of encrypting malware types, many of which were developed and discovered this year as part of the hype. Also, DDoS for ransom groups are professionals who leverage a set of network and application attacks to demonstrate their intentions and power. – Cyber-Attacks Cost Almost Twice What You May Think- Most companies have not come up with a precise calculation of the losses associated with a cyber-attack. Those who have quantified the losses estimate the damage at nearly double the amount compared to those who estimate. – Stateful Devices: #1 Point of Failure- Common IT devices, including firewalls, application delivery controllers and intrusion protection systems, now represent the greatest risk for an outage. Consequently, they require a dedicated attack mitigation solution to protect them. Threat Landscape Trends The report identifies top five trends that dominated 2016 threat landscape and will continue to haunt CISOs in the coming years. These include: – Data Leakage + SLA Impact Are Top Concerns – Data leakage and service level impact often come together, with a DDoS attack serving as a smokescreen that distracts IT teams so data can be infiltrated. – Mirai Rewrites the Rules- As the first IoT open-source botnet, Mirai is changing the rules of real-time mitigation and makes security automation a must. It isn’t just that IoT botnets can facilitate sophisticated L7 attack launches in high volumes. The fact that Mirai is open-source code means hackers can potentially mutate and customize it—resulting in an untold variety of new attack tools that can be detected only through intelligent automation. – Non-Volumetric DoS: Alive and Kicking – Despite astonishing volumes, neither the number of victims nor the frequency of attacks has grown. Most non-volumetric DDoS attacks are in relatively lower volumes, with 70% below 100Mbps. Rate-based security solutions continue to fall short, requiring companies to rethink their security strategy and embrace more sophisticated solutions. Without those upgrades, there is a good chance an organization will experience, yet lack visibility into service degradation. – Increased Attacks against Governmental Institutions- 2016 brought a new level of politically affiliated cyber protests. While the U.S. presidential election was in the spotlight, the media reported on a different breach almost weekly. These incidents happened across the globe, with regimes suffering from cyber-attacks due to alleged corruption or perceived injustices. – SSL-Based Attacks Continue to Grow- Although 39% report suffering an SSL-based attack, only 25% confidently state they can mitigate it. – DDoS Attacks Are Becoming Shorter- Burst attacks are increasing thanks to their effectiveness against most mitigation solutions. Security Strategy Evolves Rather Slowly These trends and findings indicate that while hackers continue to develop new attack tools and techniques, 40% of organizations do not have an incident response plan in place. Seventy percent do not have cyber-insurance. And despite the prevalence of ransomware, only 7% keep Bitcoin on hand. Another interesting finding of the study was three-fourths of companies do not employ hackers in their security teams, and 43% say they could not cope with an attack campaign lasting more than 24 hours. “Combining statistical research and frontline experience, the Radware report identifies trends that can help educate the security community. It draws information from sources such as the information security industry survey, where this year, 598 individual respondents representing a wide variety of organizations around the world participated,” Taneja commented. On average, responding organizations have annual revenue of USD $1.9 billion and about 3,000 employees. Ten percent are large organizations with at least USD 5 billion in annual revenue. Respondents represent more than 12 industries, with the largest number coming from the following: professional services and consulting (15%), high tech products and services (15%), banking and financial services (12%) and education (9%), the study notes. Source: http://www.cxotoday.com/story/cyber-attacks-cost-almost-twice-what-you-may-think/

Continue reading here:
Cyber-Attacks Cost Almost Twice What You May Think

New Mirai IoT variant launched 54-hour DDoS attack against a U.S. college

Researchers have spotted a new Mirai variant in the wild that is better at launching application layer attacks; other researchers spotted a new Cerber ransomware variant that can evade machine learning. A new variant of the Mirai IoT malware was spotted in the wild when it launched a 54-hour DDoS attack against an unnamed U.S. college. While the attack occurred on February 28, Imperva Incapsula is informing the world about it today. The researchers believe it is a new variant of Mirai, one that is “more adept at launching application layer assaults.” The average traffic flow was 30,000 requests per second (RPS) and peaked at about 37,000 RPS, which the DDoS mitigation firm said was the most it has seen out of any Mirai botnet so far. “In total, the attack generated over 2.8 billion requests.” During the 54-hour DDoS attack on the college, researchers observed a pool of attacking devices normally associated with Mirai such as CCTV cameras, DVRs and routers. Attack traffic originated from 9,793 IPs worldwide, but 70% of the botnet traffic came from 10 countries. The U.S. topped the list by having 18.4 percent of the botnet IPs. Israel was next with 11.3 percent, followed by Taiwan with 10.8 percent. The remaining seven countries of the top 10 were India with 8.7 percent, Turkey with 6 percent, Russia with 3.8 percent, Italy and Mexico both with 3.2 percent, Colombia with 3 percent and Bulgaria with 2.2 percent of the botnet traffic. Other signature factors such as header order and header values also helped the researchers identify the attack as a Mirai-powered botnet, yet the DDoS bots hid behind different user-agents than the five hardcoded in the default Mirai version; it used 30 user-agent variants. Incapsula said, “This–and the size of the attack itself–led us to believe that we might be dealing with a new variant, which was modified to launch more elaborate application layer attacks.” Less than a day after the 54-hour hour attack on the college ended, another was launched which lasted for an hour and half; during the second attack, the average traffic flow was 15,000 RPS. 90% of application layer attacks last less than six hours, Incapsula said, so “an attack of this duration stands in a league of its own.” The researchers said they “expect to see several more bursts before the offender(s) finally give up on their efforts.” Cerber ransomware variant evades machine learning Elsewhere, Trend Micro also has bad news in the form of a new Cerber ransomware variant. Cerber has “adopted a new technique to make itself harder to detect: it is now using a new loader that appears to be designed to evade detection by machine learning solutions.” The newest Cerber variant is still being delivered via phishing emails, but those emails now include a link to Dropbox which downloads and self-extracts the payload. If the loader detects it is running in a virtual machine, in a sandbox, or if certain analysis tools or anti-virus are running, then the malware stops running. Cerber stops, Trend Micro said, if it detects any of the following are running: msconfig, sandboxes, regedit, Task Manager, virtual machines, Wireshark, or if security products from the vendors 360, AVG, Bitdefender, Dr. Web, Kaspersky, Norton or Trend Micro are running. Trend Micro explained: Self-extracting files and simple, straightforward files could pose a problem for static machine learning file detection. All self-extracting files may look similar by structure, regardless of the content. Unpacked binaries with limited features may not look malicious either. In other words, the way Cerber is packaged could be said to be designed to evade machine learning file detection. For every new malware detection technique, an equivalent evasion technique is created out of necessity. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3186175/security/new-mirai-iot-variant-launched-54-hour-ddos-attack-against-a-us-college.html

Read the article:
New Mirai IoT variant launched 54-hour DDoS attack against a U.S. college

CyberSecurity Malaysia in Asia Pacific drill to combat DDOS attacks

National digital security specialist CyberSecurity Malaysia has taken part in an Asia Pacific drill to test preparedness for DDOS attacks. Themed ‘Emergence of a New Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Threat,’ this year’s Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team’s (APCERT) drill tested different response capabilities of leading Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) from the Asia Pacific economies. Throughout the exercise, which was completed on 22 March 2017, the participating teams activated and tested their incident handling arrangements. Commenting on the operation, Dato’ Dr. Haji Amirudin Abdul Wahab, chief executive officer of CyberSecurity Malaysia, said: “Our participation in the APCERT drill is very important indeed as we believe nations in the Asia Pacific region should band together and collaborate more closely to enhance our skills, expertise and process in incident response handling to increase our vigilance against the current trends of DDoS threats.” Dr Amirudin said that CyberSecurity Malaysia and its counterparts in the region are deepening collaboration to target and mitigate DDoS threats. DDOS increase in Malaysia He added that in Malaysia, incidents involving DDoS attacks have been on the rise for the past three years. Such attacks reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia increased to 66 in 2016, almost double from 38 incidents in 2015. In 2014, the incidents recorded stood at 38. As of February 2017, CyberSecurity Malaysia has recorded 11 incidents involving DDoS attacks. The APCERT drill included interaction with local and international CSIRTs/CERTs, and victim organisations, for the coordinated suspension of malicious infrastructure, analysis of malicious code, as well as notification and assistance to affected entities. In addition to Malaysia, 23 APCERT teams from 17 other economies (Australia, Brunei, People’s Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Macao, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam) along with 4 CSIRTs from 4 member countries (Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Pakistan) of the OIC-CERT participated in the drill. Held for the sixth time, this year’s drill also involved the participation of members from the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT). CyberSecurity Malaysia, which is the permanent secretariat for the OIC-CERT, leads the cyber security efforts among the OIC member countries. APCERT was established by leading and national Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) from the economies of the Asia Pacific region to improve cooperation, response and information sharing among CSIRTs in the region. APCERT Operational Members consist of 28 CSIRTs from 20 economies. OIC-CERT was established in January 2009, to provide a platform for member countries to explore and to develop collaborative initiatives and possible partnerships in matters pertaining to cyber security that shall strengthen their self-reliant in the cyberspace. OIC-CERT consists of 33 CERTs, cyber security related agencies and professional from 20 economies. Source: https://www.mis-asia.com/tech/security/cybersecurity-malaysia-in-asia-pacific-drill-to-combat-ddos-attacks/

More here:
CyberSecurity Malaysia in Asia Pacific drill to combat DDOS attacks

Korean foreign ministry gets several DDoS attacks from China

The website of South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has come under several cyberattacks originating from China but little damage has been reported so far, the ministry said Tuesday. “Several on-and-off DDoS attack attempts originating from China have taken place on websites including that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said in a press briefing. Defensive measures were immediately taken against the cyberattacks and no damage has been sustained, he said. The latest hacking attempts came as bilateral tensions remain high over the deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea. Since the attempts, the foreign ministry has launched a special response team and distributed a response manual among the South Korean diplomatic missions in China, the spokesman noted. The spokesman did not elaborate on exactly who is behind the DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attacks, but they are the latest in a recent series of Chinese retaliations on South Korean industries and entities. A month earlier, the Chinese-language website of South Korean retail giant Lotte as well as its duty-free branch’s Chinese and Japanese-language websites sustained similar DDoS assaults, incurring heavy revenue losses. The attacks came as China stepped up its retaliatory actions over Seoul’s on-going deployment of the US missile interception system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. China vehemently protests the deployment which it said would compromise its security interests. “Our government pays attention to the Chinese government’s (past) expression of its consistent stance that it opposes any kind of cyberattack,” the ministry spokesman noted. “The government is expecting that (China) will continuously take responsible steps in accordance with the stance.” South Korea has also recently lodged a protest with the Chinese government after South Korean national flags were found destroyed in China, Cho said. “A national flag is a symbol of a nation’s dignity and the government takes very seriously the cases of destroyed Taegeukgi that took place in certain Chinese areas,” he said. “The government has officially lodged complaints with China on many occasions and demanded China take steps to address them immediately.” “In any case, the people-to-people exchange which is the foundation of the bilateral relationship should come under a man-made obstacle,” the spokesman said, adding that the South Korean government is trying to proactively react to China’s unjust measures in order to minimize any impact on South Korean companies. Referring to a media report alleging North Korean involvement in hacking attempts at a Poland bank and other international financial institutions, Cho also said that North Korea is likely to be using illegal cyber activities for a source of foreign currency earnings. “Given the international community’s concerns over the possibility that illegal income could be used for the development of weapons of mass destruction, North Korean cyber threats are emerging as new international threats along with its nuclear, missile and WMD threats.” (Yonhap) Source: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170328000862

Follow this link:
Korean foreign ministry gets several DDoS attacks from China

A DDoS attack is cheaper than a pack of doughnuts

Cybercriminals organising DDoS attacks are making a profit of around $18 per hour, says Kaspersky. Do you know how much it costs to hire hackers for a DDoS attack? I’m asking for a friend. Anyway, Kaspersky Lab seems to know the answer as its researchers have spent some time looking into DDoS-as-a-service websites, and have come up with some numbers. As it turns out, it’s can be pretty cheap to have a website DDoSed, even though that could mean losses for the victim, in millions. It seems as hackers are undervaluing their services, yet again. In a press release, Kaspersky Lab said a DDoS attack can cost “anything from $5 for a 300-second attack, to $400 for 24 hours”. The average price for an attack is approximately $25 an hour. Using a cloud-based botnet of 1,000 desktops will set you back roughly $7 per hour. “That means the cybercriminals organising DDoS attacks are making a profit of around $18 per hour.” http://www.itproportal.com/news/a-ddos-attack-is-cheaper-than-a-pack-of-doughnuts/The definitive price is determined by a couple of factors. First, what type of devices are being used. An IoT-botnet is cheaper than a server-botnet. The type of site that needs to be attacked can also be a factor. Government sites, or those with dedicated DDoS protection, will be more expensive. “We expect the profitability of DDoS attacks to continue to grow. As a result, will see them increasingly used to extort, disrupt and mask other more intrusive attacks on businesses,” commented says Russ Madley, Head of B2B at Kaspersky Lab UK. “Worryingly, small and medium sized businesses are not confident in their knowledge of how to combat these threats effectively. The longest DDoS attack in 2016 lasted 292 hours according to Kaspersky Lab’s research, or about 12 days. Most online businesses can ill-afford to have their ‘doors closed’ for even an hour, let alone for 292 hours, as criminals take advantage of their poor defences. Companies that host these online sites are also under attack on a daily basis. The channel has a significant opportunity with our help to identify risks, provide strategic advice and deliver the right solutions to customers to prevent damaging DDoS attacks.” Source: http://www.itproportal.com/news/a-ddos-attack-is-cheaper-than-a-pack-of-doughnuts/

Original post:
A DDoS attack is cheaper than a pack of doughnuts

Criminal benefits: profit margin of a DDoS attack can reach 95%

Kaspersky Lab’s researchers have discovered the full extent of the profit margins benefiting criminals from DDoS services that are available on the black market. Kaspersky Lab’s experts have studied the DDoS services available on the black market and determined just how far this illegal business has advanced, as well as the extent of its popularity and profitability. The worrying news is that arranging an attack costs as little as $7 an hour, while the targeted company can end up losing thousands, if not millions, of dollars. The level of service involved when arranging a DDoS attack on the black market is not very different from that of a legal business. The only difference is that there’s no direct contact between the provider and the customer. The ‘service providers’ offer a convenient site where customers, after registering, can select the service they need, pay for it, and receive a report about the attacks. In some cases, there is even a customer loyalty program, with clients receiving rewards or bonus points for each attack. There are a number of factors that affect the cost for the customer. One is the type of attack and its source: for example, a botnet made up of popular IoT devices is cheaper than a botnet of servers. However, not all those providing attack services are ready to specify such details. Another factor is the duration of the attack (measured in seconds, hours and days), and the client’s location. DDoS attacks on English-language websites, for example, are usually more expensive than similar attacks on Russian-language sites. Another big factor affecting the cost is the type of victim. Attacks on government websites and resources protected by dedicated anti-DDoS solutions are much more expensive, as the former are high risk, while the latter are more difficult to attack. For instance, on one DDoS-as-a-service website, the cost of an attack on an unprotected website ranges from $50 to $100, while an attack on a protected site costs $400 or more. It means a DDoS attack can cost anything from $5 for a 300-second attack, to $400 for 24 hours. The average price for an attack is around $25 per hour. Kaspersky Lab’s experts were also able to calculate that an attack using a cloud-based botnet of 1000 desktops is likely to cost the providers about $7 per hour. That means the cybercriminals organising DDoS attacks are making a profit of around $18 per hour. There is, however, yet another scenario that offers greater profitability for cybercriminals – it involves the attackers demanding a ransom from a target in return for not launching a DDoS attack, or to call off an ongoing attack. The ransom can be the bitcoin equivalent of thousands of dollars, meaning the profitability of a single attack can exceed 95 per cent. In fact, those carrying out the blackmail don’t even need to have the resources to launch an attack – sometimes the mere threat is enough. “We expect the profitability of DDoS attacks to continue to grow. As a result, will see them increasingly used to extort, disrupt and mask other more intrusive attacks on businesses. Worryingly, small and medium sized businesses are not confident in their knowledge of how to combat these threats effectively. The longest DDoS attack in 2016 lasted 292 hours according to Kaspersky Lab’s research, or about 12 days,” said says Russ Madley, head of B2B at Kaspersky Lab UK. “Most online businesses can ill-afford to have their ‘doors closed’ for even an hour, let alone for 292 hours, as criminals take advantage of their poor defences. Companies that host these online sites are also under attack on a daily basis. The channel has a significant opportunity with our help to identify risks, provide strategic advice and deliver the right solutions to customers to prevent damaging DDoS attacks.” Interestingly, some cybercriminals have no scruples about selling DDoS attacks alongside protection from them. Kaspersky Lab’s experts, however, do not recommend using criminal services. Source: http://www.information-age.com/connected-cities-suffer-catastrophic-blackouts-123465253/

Taken from:
Criminal benefits: profit margin of a DDoS attack can reach 95%

Servers hosting Daphne Caruana Galizia’s website suffer ‘unprecedented’ DDoS attack

The servers hosting Daphne Caruana Galizia’s personal blog have suffered a DDoS attack. A DDos (denial of service) attack occurs when many systems flood the bandwidth of a targeted system, in an attempt to make the online service unavailable. Mrs Caruana Galizia does not yet know who is behind the attack, but did say it is highly likely to be a person of Maltese nationality.. Prior to the DDoS attack on the servers, she said, a fake Gmail account was setup – similar to her personal email address. The person who created the account, then emailed two persons working for the company who handle software support for the website, and tried to acquire information required to hack the site through them. This, however, did not work and the software support personnel realised that it was not Mrs Caruana Galizia’s email address, and also the use of broken English in the email. This, she said, is what led her to believe that the person behind the attack is Maltese. The police were contacted aftewr the DDOS attack occurred later, and an investigation is ongoing. The fake Gmail address used a proxy server, and thus far no culprit has been identified, she said. She explained that aside from the crime involving the DDoS attack, impersonation is also a crime. Vanilla Communications, a server hosting company owned by David Thake, hosts Daphne Caruana Galizia’s personal blog – a service that she pays for each month, she said. In a Facebook post, Mr Thake said that the servers hosting her website suffered a DDoS attack which he called “unprecedented in scale.” Mr Thake, in his post, said the attack brought the network to its knees. Source: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-03-21/local-news/Servers-hosting-Daphne-Caruana-Galizia-s-website-suffer-unprecedented-DDOS-attack-6736171884

Follow this link:
Servers hosting Daphne Caruana Galizia’s website suffer ‘unprecedented’ DDoS attack

Russian bank Alfa Says it was Under DNS Botnet Attacks

The Russian banking giant Alfa announced, in a press statement, that hackers targeted its cyber infrastructure in a large-scale DNS Botnet attack. The purpose appears to have been to make it seem as though the bank had been communicating with the Trump Organization. The bank is now asking U.S. to assist it to uncover the culprits. On Friday, the bank revealed that their servers were under three cyber attacks targeting the domain name server (DNS) since mid-February. It is unclear who was behind these attacks; the details show unknown hackers allegedly used Amazon and Google servers to send requests to a Trump Organization server posing to look like they came from Alfa Bank, pushing the Trump server to respond back to the bank. An Alfa Bank spokesperson said: “The cyber attacks are an attempt by unknown parties to manufacture the illusion of contact between Alfa Bank’s DNS servers and ’Trump servers’’. Furthermore, Alfa Bank revealed that it is ready to work with the U.S. law enforcement agency to identify the individuals involved in the campaign. The bank has already hired Stroz Friedberg, a US-based cyber security firm to get into the depth of the matter. “The cyber attacks are an attempt by unknown parties to manufacture the illusion of contact between Alfa Bank’s DNS servers and ‘Trump servers,” an Alfa Bank representative said in a statement. “We have gone to the U.S. Justice Department and offered our complete cooperation to get to the bottom of this sham and fraud.” On February 18, 2017, the bank claims it experienced suspicious cyber activity from an unidentified third-party. Specifically, the unidentified third-party repeatedly sent suspicious DNS queries from servers in the U.S. to a Trump Organization server. The unidentified individuals made it look as though these queries originated from variants of MOSCow.ALFAintRa.nET. The use of upper and lower case indicated the human intervention in the process. Moreover, Alfa Bank says it received more than 1,340 DNS responses containing mail.trump-email.com.moscow.alfaintra.net. Last week, CNN reported that the FBI’s counterintelligence team was investigating if there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank during the U.S. election, according to sources close to the investigation. The bank has now denied that there was ever a conversation between both parties. Mark McArdle, CTO at cyber security company eSentire commented on the issue and said that: “A botnet is typically associated with an attack that leverages scale, as it can employ thousands (potentially millions with IoT devices) of devices and use them to coordinate an attack on a target. We’ve seen this with some big DDoS attacks. We also see botnets being used as platforms for large-scale spamming. However, the number of DNS connections reported in the Alfa Bank attacks (1,340 in once case) don’t indicate massive scale. A botnet, however, can be used to add another layer of obfuscation between you and your attacker. Following the breadcrumbs back could bring you to a PVR that has been hacked and is now part of a botnet. I suspect in this case, the botnet is being used more for obfuscation of identity than scale. The attackers may be using a botnet to send spoofed DNS requests to a legitimate Trump server using a spoofed “reply-to” address inside Alfa-Bank’s infrastructure. Spoofing DNS lookups is not very difficult since DNS is not authenticated, and the ability to spoof source addresses is unfortunately still available – all you need is a system to launch your attack from that is connected to the Internet via an ISP that doesn’t filter out spoofed source addresses. While this type of attack has been around for a while, what’s new in this case is that someone is using it to try and contrive evidence of a relationship where neither party sought one. Additionally, there is also reference in Alfa Bank’s statement about Spam messages from marketing@trumphotels.com. It’s also possible to spoof email (spammers do this all the time). A spoofed email could include a reference to a legitimate Trump Org server and a real connection would be established if a user clicked on it (or selected “show images” in the email). Again, this does not mean the email came from Trump Org, just that it was sent in order to attempt to solicit “a connection” between Trump Org and Alfa-Bank.” Either way, identity is difficult to determine unless cryptographic certificates are used, and ultimate hack attribution is even more difficult. This is not the first time that allegations surrounding Trump’s relations with Russia have emerged. Some believe Russia hacked the US election to give Trump a way to win the presidency while some believe that Russian media was involved in spreading fake news against Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. Either way, nothing has been proven yet. Source: https://www.hackread.com/russia-alfa-bank-target-with-dns-botnet-attacks/

More:
Russian bank Alfa Says it was Under DNS Botnet Attacks