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Discovery of 8,800 servers sends warning to Asian cybercriminals

In one of the more curious cybercrime announcements of recent times, Interpol’s Asian centre says it has “identified” 8,800 servers used as command & control (C2) for all sorts of bad things including DDoS attacks and distributing ransomware and spam. You read that correctly. Interpol hasn’t disrupted these servers, merely passed information on their whereabouts and malevolent purpose to police forces in eight countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The operation isolated the C2 by working back from 270 websites infected with malware, assisted by intelligence and know-how from a number of cybersecurity companies. Added Interpol: Among them were several government websites which may have contained personal data of their citizens. Individual criminals were also identified in Nigeria and Indonesia, which hints that arrests might be forthcoming. It sounds like a modest achievement until you remember that Asia is a favoured geography for malware hosting infrastructure (including servers used to attack other parts of the globe) but, historically, underwhelming levels of cross-border co-operation. If action at national level in the countries affected eventually sees the servers disappear forever, it’s not something to be sniffed at. The bigger picture is that Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI), opened in Singapore in 2015, is signalling that it’s up and running and able to make a difference – however emblematic. Cybercrime can be mitigated by technology, of course, but few doubt importance of going after it at the roots, both the servers and the people who run and profit from them. It’s a massive challenge because these people can base themselves anywhere in the world, and introducing legal hazard into their lives requires the sort of co-operation police forces and governments aren’t used to. Founded as long ago as 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), Interpol is turning out to be a useful tool in the battle against cybercrime. Cybersecurity companies like it because its regional centres act as an independent broker that allows them to put aside commercial considerations. Police forces value it because it means they can have a relationship with one centre instead of possibly dozens of national operations. But its biggest significance is it gets the private and public sectors to work together, the former with intel and the latter with legal authority. Recent Interpol cybercrime operations have included disrupting the Avalanche botnet late last year, and the takedown of the Simda botnet two years ago. Between times were the arrests of individuals accused of being behind the infamous DD4BC DDoS extortion racket, and a global operation across Interpol’s divisions to rid the world of the one-million strong Dorkbot botnet. Only days ago, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) announced it had coordinated an operation between UK and Spanish police that saw the arrest of five people accused of distributing Remote Access Trojans (RATs) and keyloggers. We should interpret the identification of 8,800 C2 servers as good PR for Interpol but also, to quote Interpol’s chief superintendent Chan, “a blueprint for future operations”. Source: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/04/27/discovery-of-8800-c2-servers-sends-warning-to-asian-cybercriminals/

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Discovery of 8,800 servers sends warning to Asian cybercriminals

DDoS still the mainstay of Aussie cyber crime

New study finds denial of service still king despite ransomware rise. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are still the tool of choice for cybercriminals targeting Australian organisations despite the recent influx of ransomware. The study from NTT Group found that 22 per cent of all attacks targeting Australia were related to denial of service. This was only topped by service specific attacks at 23 per cent and was above website application attacks at 20 per cent. Locally, three industries were targeted in 81 per cent of all attacks, finance at 34 per cent, retail at 27 per cent and followed by business and professional services at 20 per cent. The study found that more than 93 per cent of malware detected in the country was some form of Trojan. Ransomware falls into the Trojan family and is the most prevalent form of malware attack in Australia. The country is also experiencing a change in attacks on applications according to the report with over 70 per cent of application attacks against local companies attempting remote code execution. The study analysed data collected from NTT Group’s operating companies, including NTT Security, Dimension Data, NTT Communications and NTT Data, and data from the Global Threat Intelligence Center (formerly known as SERT), between 1 October 2015 and 31 September 2016. The combined entities have a view of more than 40 per cent of global internet traffic. The report backed up findings from similar studies which showed ransomware is now the most prevalent form of cybercrime. Further, the study found that 77 per cent of ransomware analysed was targeting one of four market sectors. These Included: business and professional services (28 per cent); government (19 per cent), health care (15 per cent) and retail (15 per cent). The report also found that despite attention being paid to attacks on newer vulnerabilities, many cyber criminals rely on less technical means to achieve their objectives. The phishing email is still by far the dominant method for malware delivery, responsible for 73 per cent of all malware delivered to organisations, with government (65 per cent) and business and professional services (25 per cent) as the industry sectors most likely to be attacked at a global level. In terms of phishing attacks by country, the US leads the pack at 41 per cent, closely followed by The Netherlands with 38 per cent. France was in third place well behind the top two with 5 per cent. For industry specific attacks, finance was the most commonly attacked industry globally, subject to 14 per cent of all attacks. The finance sector was the only sector to appear in the top three across all geographic regions analysed, while manufacturing appeared in the top three in five of the six regions. Government (14 per cent) and manufacturing (13 per cent ) were the next two most commonly attacked industry sectors. “Our end goal is not to create fear, uncertainty and doubt or to over-complicate the current state of the threat landscape, but to make cybersecurity interesting and inclusive for anyone facing the challenges of security attacks, not just security professionals,” NTT Security Vice President Threat Intelligence & Incident Response, Steven Bullitt, said. “We want to ensure everyone is educated about these issues and understands that they have a personal responsibility when it comes to the protection of their organisation, and that the organisation has an obligation to help them do so,” he said. Source: https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/618243/ddos-still-mainstay-aussie-cyber-crime/

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DDoS still the mainstay of Aussie cyber crime

Teenage hacker jailed for masterminding attacks on Sony and Microsoft

Adam Mudd jailed for two years for creating attack-for-hire business responsible for more than 1.7m breaches worldwide. A man has been jailed for two years for setting up a computer hacking business that caused chaos worldwide. Adam Mudd was 16 when he created the Titanium Stresser program, which carried out more than 1.7m attacks on websites including Minecraft, Xbox Live and Microsoft and TeamSpeak, a chat tool for gamers. He earned the equivalent of more than £386,000 in US dollars and bitcoins from selling the program to cyber criminals. Mudd pleaded guilty and was sentenced at the Old Bailey. The judge, Michael Topolski QC, noted that Mudd came from a “perfectly respectable and caring family”. He said the effect of Mudd’s crimes had wreaked havoc “from Greenland to New Zealand, from Russia to Chile”. Topolski said the sentence must have a “real element of deterrent” and refused to suspend the jail term. “I’m entirely satisfied that you knew full well and understood completely this was not a game for fun,” he told Mudd. “It was a serious money-making business and your software was doing exactly what you created it to do.” Mudd showed no emotion as he was sent to a young offender institution. During the two-day hearing, Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said the effect of Mudd’s hacking program was “truly global”, adding: “Where there are computers, there are attacks – in almost every major city in the world – with hotspots in France, Paris, around the UK.” The court heard that Mudd, who lived with his parents, had previously undiagnosed Asperger syndrome and was more interested in status in the online gaming community than the money. The court heard that the defendant, now 20, carried out 594 of the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against 181 IP addresses between December 2013 and March 2015. He has admitted to security breaches against his college while he was studying computer science. The attacks on West Herts College crashed the network, cost about £2,000 to investigate and caused “incalculable” damage to productivity, the court heard. On one occasion in 2014, the college hacking affected 70 other schools and colleges, including Cambridge, Essex and East Anglia universities as well as local councils. Mudd’s explanation for one of the attacks was that he had reported being mugged to the college but claimed no action was taken. Polnay said there were more than 112,000 registered users of Mudd’s program who hacked about 666,000 IP addresses. Of those, nearly 53,000 were in the UK. Among the targets was the fantasy game RuneScape, which had 25,000 attacks. Its owner company spent £6m trying to defend itself against DDoS attacks, with a revenue loss of £184,000. The court heard that Mudd created Titanium Stresser in September 2013 using a fake name and address in Manchester. He offered a variety of payment plans to his customers, including discounts for bulk purchases of up to $309.99 for 30,000 seconds over five years as well as a refer-a-friend scheme. Polnay said: “This is a young man who lived at home. This is not a lavish lifestyle case. The motivation around this we tend to agree is about status. The money-making is by the by.” When he was arrested in March 2015, Mudd was in his bedroom on his computer, which he refused to unlock before his father intervened. Mudd, from Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to one count of committing unauthorised acts with intent to impair the operation of computers; one count of making, supplying or offering to supply an article for use in an offence contrary to the Computer Misuse Act; and one count of concealing criminal property. Ben Cooper, defending, appealed for his client to be given a suspended sentence. He said Mudd had been “sucked into” the cyber world of online gaming and was “lost in an alternate reality” after withdrawing from school because of bullying. Mudd, who was expelled from college and now works as a kitchen porter, had been offline for two years, which was a form of punishment for any computer-obsessed teenager, Cooper said. The “bright and high-functioning” defendant understood what he did was wrong but at the time he lacked empathy due to his medical condition, the court heard. Cooper said: “This was an unhappy period for Mr Mudd, during which he suffered greatly. This is someone seeking friendship and status within the gaming community.” But the judge said: “I have a duty to the public who are worried about this, threatened by this, damaged by this all the time … It’s terrifying.” Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/teenage-hacker-adam-mudd-jailed-masterminding-attacks-sony-microsoft

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Teenage hacker jailed for masterminding attacks on Sony and Microsoft

New DDoS Attacks Use Far Fewer Infected Hosts

Akamai Technologies has identified a new attack method generating extremely large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against educational institutions and other types of organizations but without the millions of infected hosts typically seen in these scenarios. In a threat advisory recently published by the content delivery network company’s security intelligence response team, researchers described a reflection and amplification method that can produce “significant attack bandwidth” through “significantly fewer hosts.” What’s required are open ports allowing LDAP traffic. The company’s security experts have detected and mitigated a total of 50 Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) reflection attacks. CLDAP was intended as an “efficient alternative to LDAP queries done over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Most of the attacks seen in the wild used CLDAP reflection exclusively. Twice, education has been the target. However, the primary victims have been in the software and technology industry, where 21 attacks have taken place, and the gaming segment, which has had 15 attacks. The largest of the attacks hit its target with a peak bandwidth of 24 gigabits per second and a top count of packets per second of 2 million. The source port was 386, the port used by Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). According to the report, signatures of the attack suggest that it’s “capable of impressive amplification.” For example, Akamai security people obtained sample malicious LDAP reflection queries that had a payload of only 52 bytes. Yet the attack data payload was 3,662 bytes, meaning that the amplification factor was 73. More typically, the average amplification rate was 57, according to the researchers. The attacks are launched using “attack scripts,” usually written in C and with only slight variations from one vector to another. When the script is run, the target IP becomes the source of all the 52-byte query payloads. These are then sent rapidly to every server in the supplied reflector list. From there, the CLDAP servers do as they’re designed and reply to the query. As a result, the report described, “the target of this attack must deal with a flood of unsolicited CLDAP responses.” The attack is “fueled” by the number of servers on the internet with port 389 open and listening. Once a server has been identified as a viable source, it’s added to the list of reflectors. The best mitigation, suggested the report, is to filter the port in question. “Ingress filtering of the CLDAP port from the internet will prevent discovery and subsequent abuse of this service,” the report noted. Another option is to apply rules, which won’t stop the outbreak, but will alert system administers when an attempt is made to use the systems as part of a reflection attack. Source: https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/04/20/new-ddos-attacks-use-far-fewer-infected-hosts.aspx?admgarea=news

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New DDoS Attacks Use Far Fewer Infected Hosts

CLDAP reflection attacks may be the next big DDoS technique

Security researchers discovered a new reflection attack method using CLDAP that can be used to generate destructive but efficient DDoS campaigns. DDoS campaigns have been growing to enormous sizes and a new method of abusing CLDAP for reflection attacks could allow malicious actors to generate large amounts of DDoS traffic using fewer devices. Jose Arteaga and Wilber Majia, threat researchers for Akamai, identified attacks in the wild that used the Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol(CLDAP) to perform dangerous reflection attacks. “Since October 2016, Akamai has detected and mitigated a total of 50 CLDAP reflection attacks. Of those 50 attack events, 33 were single vector attacks using CLDAP reflection exclusively,” Arteaga and Majia wrote. “While the gaming industry is typically the most targeted industry for [DDoS] attacks, observed CLDAP attacks have mostly been targeting the software and technology industry along with six other industries.” The CLDAP reflection attack method was first discovered in October 2016 by Corero and at the time it was estimated to be capable of amplifying the initial response to 46 to 55 times the size, meaning far more efficient reflection attacks using fewer sources. The largest attack recorded by Akamai using CLDAP reflection as the sole vector saw one payload of 52 bytes amplified to as much as 70 times the attack data payload (3,662 bytes) and a peak bandwidth of 24Gbps and 2 million packets per second. This is much smaller than the peak bandwidths of more than 1Tbps seen with Mirai, but Jake Williams, founder of consulting firm Rendition InfoSec LLC in Augusta, Ga., said this amplification factor can allow “a user with low bandwidth [to] DDoS an organization with much higher bandwidth.” “CLDAP, like DNS DDoS, is an amplification DDoS. The attacker has relatively limited bandwidth. By sending a small message to the server and spoofing the source, the server responds to the victim with a much larger response,” Williams told SearchSecurity. “You can only effectively spoof the source of connectionless protocols, so CLDAP is obviously at risk.” Arteaga and Majia said enterprises could limit these kinds of reflection attacks fairly easily by blocking specific ports. “Similarly to many other reflection and amplification attack vectors, this is one that would not be possible if proper ingress filtering was in place,” Arteaga and Majia wrote in a blog post. “Potential hosts are discovered using internet scans, and filtering User Datagram Protocol destination port 389, to eliminate the discovery of another potential host fueling attacks.” Williams agreed that ingress filtering would help and noted that “CLDAP was officially retired from being on the IETF standards track in 2003” but enterprises using Active Directory need to be aware of the threat. “Active Directory supports CLDAP and that’s probably the biggest reason you’ll see a CLDAP server exposed to the internet,” Williams said. “Another reason might be email directory services, though I suspect that is much less common.” Source: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/450416890/CLDAP-reflection-attacks-may-be-the-next-big-DDoS-technique

Hackers attacking WordPress sites via home routers

Administrators of sites using the popular blogging platform WordPress face a new challenge: hackers are launching coordinated brute-force attacks on the administration panels of WordPress sites via unsecured home routers, according to a report on Bleeping Computer. Once they’ve gained access, the attackers can guess the password for the page and commandeer the account. The home routers are corralled into a network which disseminates the brute-force attack to thousands of IP addresses negotiating around firewalls and blacklists, the report stated. The flaw was detected by WordFence, a firm that offers a security plugin for the WordPress platform. The campaign is exploiting security bugs in the TR-069 router management protocol to highjack devices. Attackers gain entry by sending malicious requests to a router’s 7547 port. The miscreants behind the campaign are playing it low-key to avoid detection, attempting only a few guesses at passwords for each router. While the exact size of the botnet is unknown, WordFence reported that nearly seven percent of all the brute-force attacks on WordPress sites last month arrived from home routers with port 7547 exposed to the internet. The flaw is exacerbated by the fact that most home users lack the technical know-how to limit access to their router’s 7547 port. In some cases, the devices do not allow the shuttering of the port. A more practical solution is offered by WordFence: ISPs should filter out traffic on their network coming from the public internet that is targeting port 7547. “The routers we have identified that are attacking WordPress sites are suffering from a vulnerability that has been around since 2014 when CheckPoint disclosed it,” Mark Maunder, CEO of WordFence CEO, told SC Media on Wednesday. The specific vulnerability, he pointed out, is the “misfortune cookie” vulnerability. “ISPs have known about this vulnerability for some time and they have not updated the routers that have been hacked, leaving their customers vulnerable. So, this is not a case of an attacker continuously evolving a technique to infect routers. This is a case of opportunistic infection of a large number of devices that have a severe vulnerability that has been known about for some time, but has never been patched.” There are two attacks, Maunder told SC. The first is the router that is infected through the misfortune cookie exploit. The other is the attacks his firm is seeing on WordPress sites that are originating from infected ISP routers on home networks. “The routers appear to be running a vulnerable version of Allegro RomPager version 4.07,” Maunders said. “In CheckPoint’s original 2014 disclosure of this vulnerability they specifically note that 4.07 is the worst affected version of RomPager. So there is nothing new or innovative about this exploit, it is simply going after ISP routers that have a large and easy to hit target painted on them.” The real story here, said Maunder, is that a number of large ISPs, several of them state owned, have gone a few years without patching their customer routers and their customers and the online community are now paying the price. “Customer home networks are now exposed to attackers and the online community is seeing their websites attacked. I expect we will see several large DDoS attacks originating from these routers this year.” Source: https://www.scmagazine.com/hackers-attacking-wordpress-sites-via-home-routers/article/649992/

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Hackers attacking WordPress sites via home routers

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/

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Cyber-Attacks Cost Almost Twice What You May Think

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

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Korean foreign ministry gets several DDoS attacks from China

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/

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

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/

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Russian bank Alfa Says it was Under DNS Botnet Attacks