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Many online newspapers become DDoS victims

At 4.11 pm of July 7, when accessing Dan Tri newspaper at dantri.com.vn, readers would see the words “Ban hay thuc hien phep tinh de tiep tuc su dung bao Dan Tri” showing that the access was denied. Dan Tri was just one of the many online newspapers hacked in recent days under a large scale DDoS offensive of the hackers. The hacking made a lot of newspapers inaccessible. Some readers still could access websites, but they had to try many times and wait with patience. Internet security experts have commented that the attack might have been well prepared for a long time, because it was conducted in a very methodical way. HVAOnline, a security forum, reported that since July 4, Thanh Nien, Tuoi tre, Dan Tri, VietNamNet, Kenh 14 have been the victims of the DDoS attacks, noting that the number of hacked online newspapers is on the rise. It is estimated that each of the newspapers incur the DDoS attack capacity of 50-70 Mbps, while the capacity was up to 1.3 Gbps for some newspapers. To date, some newspapers have fixed the problems, but the access remains unstable. According to Vo Do Thang, Director of Athena, an Internet security training center in HCM City, the current attack power would be unbearable to the small online newspapers. As such, the hacking would cause serious consequences, especially if it lasts for a long time. The experts said hackers purposely attacked the server of VDC 2 (the Vietnam Data communication Company) where the servers of many online newspapers are located. As a result, not only the VDC 2’s server, but the newspapers’ servers also suffered. HVAOnline said the forum itself and many other forums, information portals in Vietnam also incurred many DDoS attacks, but at weaker intensity. In fact, experts said the attacks began in June 2013 already at low intensity, which could be the preparation for the “general offensive” in July. They believe that the hackers may belong to a big and powerful organization to be able to mobilize such large botnets and zombies for the large scale attack. The hackers reportedly timed their attacks in their way. After finishing one attack aiming to one goal, they began the attack to another goal. After that, they unexpectedly returned and attacked the first aiming point. This way of hacking might make readers and the newspapers’ administrators misunderstand that the newspapers got troubles, while they did not think of a DDoS attack. Buu Dien newspaper on July 11 quoted the Director of an Internet security firm as saying that the firm, after analyzing the attack, found out that the attack was originated from an IP in Vietnam. BKAV’s Nguyen Minh Duc said two days ago that BKAV has not received any request for help from the hacked newspapers. A Symantec’s report in 2011 said that Vietnam has become the favorite space of the world’s hackers, and that it is the biggest botnet in the world. One of the reasons behind this is that Vietnamese don’t install anti-virus software on their computers, and they have the habit of installing cracked software pieces, or downloading some software products from unreliable websites. Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/79186/many-online-newspapers-become-ddos-victims.html

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Many online newspapers become DDoS victims

Staying Informed About DDoS Threats

Distributed-denial-of-service attacks have plagued U.S. banks since last September. But DDoS attacks pose a persistent, genuine threat to other sectors as well. Any organization with an online presence is at risk. Successful DDoS attacks can take a website offline, damaging brand image and chipping away at consumer trust. But they also can do much more. In some cases, these attacks can be used to mask fraud by distracting security and IT departments while banking accounts or confidential files are simultaneously being taken over. To provide insights on the latest DDoS threats – and effective mitigation strategies – Information Security Media Group has launched a DDoS Resource Center . The resource center, sponsored by online security firms Akamai, Fortinet, Neustar, Radware and VeriSign, includes timely interviews, in-depth features, news stories and blogs that offer insights about emerging botnets and attack techniques from those who are analyzing and battling DDoS on the frontlines. The resource center also offers expert insights on practical steps for minimizing the impact of DDoS attacks. By visiting the resource center, you’ll get the latest information on the different types of DDoS attacks, such as DNS reflection and application layer attacks, as well as the attacks’ possible links to fraud . You’ll learn about DDoS protections and mitigation services , notification and response strategies, and DDoS detection measures. Here’s a sampling of the variety of content our resource center offers: An interview with ex-FBI investigator Shawn Henry , who shares insights about cross-border and cross-industry collaboration that’s taking place behind the scenes to strengthen DDoS and cybersecurity knowledge. An analysis of a new type of DDoS strike that targeted two U.S. banks for what some say could have been a test for more attacks to come. A blog about how the botnet, known as Brobot, that’s been used in DDoS attacks against U.S. banks is being retooled to defeat common mitigation practices. And an interview with former federal banking examiner Amy McHugh about why community banks are prime targets for DDoS strikes being waged as modes of distraction to veil account takeover attempts. The DDoS Resource Center also provides research, white papers and webinars, including a session on new defense strategies for DDoS , which includes insights from Rodney Joffee of DDoS-mitigation provider Neustar and Mike Wyffels, senior vice president and chief technology officer of multibank holding company QCR Holdings Inc. Source: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/blogs/staying-informed-about-ddos-threats-p-1506

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Staying Informed About DDoS Threats

Tips To Prepare For A DDoS Attack

IT security experts report that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are a growing concern for 2013: this trend is proved by the countless attacks during 2012 and shown from the findings on the latest CSI Computer Crime & Security Survey, which attracts widespread media attention and is one of many online sources that provides valuable information and guidance to information security professionals. How can a business or individual decrease the likelihood of these type of threats? Fortunately, there are methods that can be used in advance to mitigate risk and infections from the amplification of such attacks. Safety First First of all, it is paramount to identify if the network is safe and protected from unauthorized access, malicious content, real-time threats and cyber intrusions. If not, network system managers should consider using traditional security products like a firewall, Intrusion Prevention and Detection Systems (IPDS) and Web application firewall devices to establish a first line of security defense. It is crucial to be responsive and implement the necessary security hardware and software tools ahead of time to defend the perimeter of the network from intrusion and before being the hacker’s target. Business and individuals alike should plan early on and not wait until they are at mercy of the attack to use proper security controls. Malicious attacks, which can be carried out from several compromised systems and from another location (IP address), can enable a rogue attacker to install a series of zombie Trojans to attack or infect (with malware) hosted computers. Whatever reason and motive the intruder has, s/he is able to take over an entire network and initiate a flood or packet attack, all while denying legitimate connections and paralyzing victims’ systems or servers (e.g., Web servers, DNS servers, application servers). The aim is to use up the network bandwidth and bring its operations or services down. Knowing how dangerous such an attack can be, it comes of utmost importance to be familiar with the different kind of DDoS attacks that could affect the network to understand what type of countermeasures should be put to use. Despite the scale and frequency of these attacks, there are ways to be prepared and avoid being vulnerable to this threat that can be so disruptive. Next is a list of tips to prepare and plan, before an attack strikes, which if made a victim of could have devastating effects on one’s business, such as costly downtime and/or lost revenue. Here are six ways to prevent a DDoS attack • Utilize packet filters on the router(s) • Setup a firewall with advanced security • Properly configure webserver with security modules • Implement logging with ACLs and have them in place to filter traffic • Exploit NetFlow for traffic monitoring and tracking down specific attacks • Rely on a third-party cloud DDoS mitigation provider for proprietary filtering technology. This is a great alternative for those that do not want to handle the security themselves and obtain a quick solution that provides on-demand, real-time protection to monitor 24/7 a business or individuals’ on-premises network infrastructure. If you’re looking for reputable provider, I would suggest getting DDoS protection from DOSarrest . Other than the tips listed, it is suggested to always have more bandwidth available, maintain anti-virus software, and deploy IPDS devices or firewalls in front of the servers just in case of a DDoS attack. It is better to spend some time (and money) preparing in advance for this network threat than dealing with a last minute crisis and trying to figure out what needs to be done. Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/tips-to-prepare-for-a-ddos-attack

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Tips To Prepare For A DDoS Attack

LinkedIn DDoS response botched

More than half of Linkedin’s members were knocked off the service for an extended period yesterday following a botched response to a DDOS by service provider Network Solutions. Users were redirected in error to India-based website confluence-networks.com which did not require Secure Sockets Layer connections meaning users’ cookies were sent in clear text. Initial media reports suggested the company’s DNS had been hijacked and user security potentially compromised as user’s cookies may have been visible as plain text during the outage. Linkedin subsequently confirmed on Twitter that the outage was due to human error not malice. “Yesterday’s issue was not malicious in any way It was an error by the company that manages our domain,” the statement said. In a post on its site the company claimed LinkedIn member data was not compromised. For protection against your eCommerce site click here . Source: http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/347578,linkedin-ddos-response-botched.aspx

LulzSec Hacker Ryan Cleary To Be Released

Convicted LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary, 21, is set to be released “imminently” after appearing Wednesday in a London courtroom for sentencing relating to charges that he made and possessed 172 indecent images of children on his PC. “Some of these images showed children aged as young as six months old in circumstances where they were completely vulnerable,” Judge Deborah Taylor told Cleary, reported The Independent in Britain. “These images were such as would make any right-minded person concerned at you viewing such images.” Cleary, aka Viral, previously pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing indecent images of children. Taylor said Wednesday that although U.K. sentencing guidelines required incarceration for the offenses to which Cleary had plead guilty, “time has been served in any event.” Based on time served, his pleading guilty to all charges filed against him and agreeing to wear an electronic device that will monitor his location, Cleary received a three-year community service order, which requires that he work in the community without pay. He also received a 36-month supervision order, which is akin to probation and requires that Cleary meet weekly with his probation officer. Finally, Cleary was ordered to sign the U.K.’s Violent and Sex Offender Register, which is a database used by police and prison officials to track people convicted of related offenses. Cleary previously appeared in court last month, when he was sentenced to 32 months in prison, followed by a five-year serious crime prevention order that can be used to restrict where he’s allowed to travel and which jobs he’ll be allowed to work. Also sentenced in May were fellow LulzSec participants Jake Davis (Topiary), Mustafa al-Bassam (Tflow) and Ryan Ackroyd (Kayla). Together with Cleary, they pleaded guilty to charges of hacking a number of sites, including the CIA, Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) and National Health Service (NHS), and Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as leaking the credit card data and personal information of hundreds of thousands of people. Cleary also pleaded guilty to launching numerous distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks under the banners of Anonymous, Internet Feds and LulzSec. British police said the attacks in which Cleary participated caused an estimated $31 million in damages. British police said that when they arrested Cleary at his home on June 20, 2011, they found him in the middle of launching a DDoS attack against the website of SOCA, which was conducting a joint investigation with the FBI into the activities of LulzSec, Anonymous and AntiSec. Clearly was first arrested in 2011 and released on bail, subject to his refraining from using the Internet. He was re-arrested on bail violation charges on March 5, 2012, for going online in December 2011 to contact LulzSec leader Sabu. The day after Cleary’s arrest, federal officials revealed that in June 2011, Sabu — real name Hector Xavier Monsegur — had been arrested and turned confidential government informant, and was helping the FBI investigate hackers and information security attacks. The news of Cleary’s imminent release after serving less than his full jail sentence has led some members of Anonymous to accuse him of having cut a deal with authorities, although no evidence has been produced to back up that assertion. “Anyone who gets away with child porn charges is obviously collaborating with the feds,” according to a post by “ro0ted” to the pro-Anonymous CyberGuerilla blog. Cleary’s legal troubles might not be over, as he was indicted last year by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on hacking charges. But his attorney, Karen Todner, said last year that U.S. prosecutors had indicated that they wouldn’t be seeking his extradition. Furthermore, if that changed, she said her client would fight any such request. “Cleary suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and is on the autistic spectrum and extradition to the United States is totally undesirable,” she said. Source: http://www.informationweek.com/security/attacks/lulzsec-hacker-ryan-cleary-to-be-release/240156590?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Government

Are DDoS Attacks Against Banks Over?

Distributed-denial-of-service attacks against U.S. banks have been dormant for nearly four weeks, leading security experts to question when and if a new phase of attacks might emerge. The hacktivist group Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters , which since last September has taken credit for the hits against banks, claimed its attacks were in protest of a YouTube movie trailer deemed offensive to Muslims. But some observers have speculated that Iran was backing the DDoS strikes against banks as payback for cyber-espionage attacks, such as Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu, that have over the last three years affected Iranian computer systems. Rodney Joffe, senior technologist for online security provider Neustar Inc., says the current lull could be a sign that the attacks waged by the hacktivist group are over. “It’s a wild conjecture,” Joffe says. “But we may have seen the end of them.” Joffe says indirect activity linked to the al-Qassam Cyber Fighters’ botnet, known as Brobot, has continued. But there have been no direct attacks. And that lack of activity raises questions about whether al-Qassam will wage any more attacks, Joffe says. “The botnet is no bigger than it was,” he says. “We take [compromised] machines down and then new machines keep getting adding. I still have hope that the government will have some impact or effect, but don’t know one way or the other.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation in April warned that Brobot had been modified, “in an attempt to increase the effectiveness with which the [botnet’s] scripts evade detection.” The FBI said the actors behind Brobot were changing their attack methodology to circumvent mitigation efforts put forth by U.S. banking institutions The FBI also noted that as of April 10, 46 U.S. banking institutions had been targeted by more than 200 separate DDoS attacks of “various degrees of impact” since September. Financial fraud expert Avivah Litan , an analyst at Gartner, says intervention from federal authorities may have spurred al-Qassam to halt its attacks. But, like Joffe, she says there is no way to be sure. “I do know the banks were trying to get the White House to do something politically, and that could be what’s happened.” But other experts, such as Mike Smith of Web security provider Akamai Technologies, don’t think there’s been anything going on behind the scenes to keep the attacks from resuming. Different Attack Actors Other experts anticipate that another group could emerge to resume DDoS attacks against banks if Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters ends its campaigns. “There has been a lull in the al-Qassam-like attacks,” says Scott Hammack , CEO of DDoS-mitigation provider Prolexic. “But I would definitely not misunderstand this lull as being an end to these types of attacks. The attacks will continue; it’s really just a question of when, not if.” The current break comes after a third phase of hacktivist attacks, which kicked off in March. The latest campaign ran eight weeks, the longest-running so far. The break from the third phase of attacks has lasted four weeks so far. By comparison the break between the first campaign , which began Sept. 18, and the second campaign , which kicked off Dec. 10, lasted six weeks. And the break between the second and third campaigns lasted five weeks. Hammack, like Smith, says Brobot, as well as other botnets, continue to grow. In fact, over Memorial Day weekend, Prolexic helped to mitigate a 167-gigabyte DNS-reflection attack, the largest attack recorded to date, Hammack says. “The attack traffic was global and required us to use all four of our cloud-based scrubbing centers,” he says. DNS-reflection was the attack method used in Operation Stophaus , an attack waged in March by The Spamhaus Project, a Geneva-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting Internet spam. And while it’s not an extremely sophisticated type of attack, Hammack says these types of DDoS strikes are only going to become more prevalent. “There are plenty of countries where rogue elements will continue to exist,” he says. “You’re never going to overcome that. I think, if anything, people should be taking advantage of this down time to fortify their infrastructures.” The application-layer attacks al-Qassam Cyber Fighters favored in its last two campaigns have remained inactive, despite that the group appears to continue efforts to grow and strengthen its botnet. “The botnets are out there,” Hanmmack says. “We have between 15,000 and 100,000 compromised web servers out there that we know of. So the artillery is still out there to create these types of attacks. We just haven’t seen any of the web server attacks for the last 30 days.” Why Have Attacks Stopped So why have the hacktivists remained quiet for the last month? On May 6, al-Qassam Cyber Fighters claimed on the open forum Pastebin that its attacks would cease for just a week, out of respect for OperationUSA , a separate hacktivist movement organized by Anonymous that proved unsuccessful Many experts predicted the group’s attacks against banks would resume by May 14. But they didn’t. Some have speculated that international law enforcement could be close to nailing members of the al-Qassam team. But Hammack says drawing conclusions based on the ebbs and flows of DDoS attacks is dangerous because hacktivists attack in waves. “Certain attacks die down after certain periods,” he says. “That doesn’t mean, though, that the attacks are over.” Banking institution leaders say they’ve been advised by groups such as the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center not to lessen their DDoS mitigation efforts. Litan says banks are heeding that advice. “The banks have more vendors involved now,” she says. “I don’t think they’ll ever pull back. They have put a lot of systems in. They really can’t go back now, and they shouldn’t.” Source: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/are-ddos-attacks-against-banks-over-a-5801/op-1

Possibly related DDoS attacks cause DNS hosting outages

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that could be related have in the past few days slammed the DNS servers of at least three providers of domain name management and DNS hosting services. DNSimple, easyDNS and TPP Wholesale all reported temporary DNS service outages and degradation on Monday, citing DDoS attacks as the reason. In some cases the attacks started a few days ago and are ongoing. TPP Wholesale, a subsidiary of Sydney-based Netregistry, one of Australia’s largest providers of Web hosting, domain management and other online services, alerted its customers through its website on Monday that eight of its DNS servers experienced “unscheduled service interruption.” TPP Wholesale experienced a series of DDoS attacks against its DNS name servers over the past several days, the Netregistry Group Security Team said in a blog post. The company managed to mitigate the DDoS attacks that caused service interruptions throughout Monday by taking “the drastic step” of rate-limiting DNS queries, the team said. Such aggressive filtering is prone to false positives and might result in some customers being denied DNS service. “In the next few days we will continue to whitelist such false positives as we discover them,” the team said. Second wave EasyDNS, a DNS hosting provider based in Toronto, also reported DNS service disruptions caused by a DDoS attack on Monday. “This looks like a larger version of a smaller DDoS yesterday which was possibly a test run,” the company’s CEO Mark Jeftovic said Monday in a blog post. “This DDoS attack is different from our previous ones in that it looks as if the target is us, easyDNS, not one of our clients.” Jeftovic said that it was difficult to differentiate the real traffic from the DDoS traffic, but the company managed to partially mitigate the attack and also published workarounds for affected customers. “This is the ‘nightmare scenario’ for DNS providers, because it is not against a specific domain which we can isolate and mitigate, but it’s against easyDNS itself and it is fairly well constructed,” he said. Third victim Aetrion, based in Malabar, Florida, operates a DNS hosting service called DNSimple, which was also attacked on Monday. According to DNSimple founder Anthony Eden, the DDoS attack is ongoing, but the company managed to mitigate it. “Our authoritative name servers were used as an amplifier for an attack against a third-party network,” Eden said Tuesday via email. “The attacker essentially flooded us with ‘ANY’ queries for a variety of domains managed by our DNS service, with the intention of amplifying these small queries into significantly larger responses aimed at a specific network.” This attack technique is known as DNS reflection or DNS amplification. It involves sending queries with a spoofed source IP (Internet Protocol) address—usually the victim’s address—to DNS servers from a large number of computers in order to trigger long responses to be sent by those servers to victim’s IP address within a short time window. If enough computers and DNS servers are used, the resulting rogue DNS traffic will exhaust the victim’s available Internet bandwidth. The DNS reflection technique has been known for a long time. However, its recent use to launch DDoS attacks of unprecedented scale, like the one in March that targeted a spam-fighting organization called Spamhaus, has likely brought it renewed interest from attackers. The attack experienced by DNSimple on Monday was significantly larger in volume and duration than other attacks that hit the company’s name servers in the past, Eden said. He believes that the attack is related to the ones experienced by easyDNS and TPP Wholesale. “The pattern displayed on TPP Wholesale’s blog is similar to what we see, and we have been communicating with easyDNS and find similarities between the attacks.” EasyDNS and TPP Wholesale did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking more information about the recent attacks against their servers and confirmation that they were using DNS reflection techniques. Attack and abuse reports on the increase It’s possible that DNS servers operated by other companies were also affected by this attack, Eden said. “A DNS provider will have a significantly higher number of customers and thus the attacks get noticed much sooner because it affects a larger group of people,” he said. DNSimple’s authoritative name servers were used to amplify a DDoS attack directed at a server hosting company called Sharktech or one of its customers, Eden said. Sharktech has noticed a surge of abuse reports in the past 24 hours coming from ISPs and hosting companies complaining about DDoS attacks against their DNS servers that appear to originate from Sharktech, said Tim Timrawi, president and CEO of Sharktech, via email. Upon further investigation the company determined that these reports were actually the result of a DNS amplification attack against its own customers that abused the authoritative DNS servers of those companies, he said. Most of the affected DNS servers were secured properly and were being queried for domains they are responsible for, Timrawi said. “Unlike previous DNS Amplification Attacks in which the attacker used open recursive DNS servers, in this one, the attacker is collecting all the DNS servers they can find and sending MX (and other kind of queries) to them for their domain records with a spoofed source of the target host,” he said. The amplified DDoS attack targeting Sharktech customers was larger than 40Gbps, Timrawi said. “We are unaware of the reason behind the attacks,” he said. The abuse of authoritative name servers in DNS reflection attacks is not very common because attackers need to know the exact domain names that each abused server is responsible for, said Carlos Morales, vice president of sales engineering and operations at DDoS mitigation provider Arbor Networks. Obtaining this information is not very hard, but it does require additional work compared to abusing open DNS resolvers, and attackers usually prefer the easiest route to reach their goals, he said. Open DNS resolvers are recursive DNS servers that are configured to accept queries from any computers on the Internet. These act as relays between users and authoritative DNS servers; they receive queries for any domain name, find the authoritative name server responsible for it and relay the information obtained from that server back to the user. Meanwhile, authoritative name servers, like those operated by DNSimple, easyDNS and TPP Wholesale, will only respond to queries concerning the domain names they serve. Well-prepared attackers The extra work required to target such servers suggests that the attackers behind the recent attacks on these DNS hosting providers were well prepared and did their homework in advance, Morales said. One mitigation against this kind of attack is to configure the DNS server software to force all “ANY” queries sent over UDP (User Datagram Protocol) to be resent over TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) instead, Eden said. This can be done by sending a UDP response with the TC bit set and an empty answer section. A legitimate DNS client will retry over TCP, while a bogus client will get no benefit, he said. In the case of open resolvers, the problem can be mitigated by restricting which IP addresses are allowed to query them, said Morales. For example, an ISP operating a DNS resolver for its customers can restrict its use to only IP addresses from its network, he said. However, this kind of mitigation is not applicable to authoritative name servers because they are meant to be queried by anyone on the Internet who wants to get information about the specific domain names served by them, Morales said. The mitigation described by Eden is very good and is actually one that Arbor also uses to protect authoritative name servers, he said. Another mitigation is to enforce a query rate limit for source IP addresses, he said. Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040766/possibly-related-ddos-attacks-cause-dns-hosting-outages.html

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Possibly related DDoS attacks cause DNS hosting outages

Turkish gov’t websites hacked by Anonymous

A group of computer hackers known as Anonymous carried out early on Monday a series of cyberattacks on Turkish government websites in retaliation for violent police response to anti-government protests. Several Anonymous messages in its Twitter blog provide links to the sites, including those of President Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, that have been denied public access. Hackers normally use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock their targets offline. Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday that some Turkish media websites have also been targeted by Anonymous for “for failing to adequately cover the events.” The planned demolition of Gezi Park in central Istanbul sparked mass rallies in the city on Saturday, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters. Violent clashes between protesters and police continued in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, on Sunday. The rally in Istanbul triggered more than 230 separate protests in 67 cities across the country, according to Sky News. Turkey’s Interior Minister Muammer Guler said on Sunday that more than 1,700 people had been arrested in the unrest nationwide, adding that 58 civilians and 115 security officers had been injured over several days of protests. The United States and the European Union and have already urged the Turkish government to exercise restraint, while Amnesty International has condemned the use of tear gas by Turkish police as “a breach of international human rights standards.” Anonymous declares Internet attacks in support of Turkish protests Anonymous vows to kick off a worldwide action which will “bring the Turkish government to its knees.” With #opTurkey, the hacktivist collective plans to “attack every Internet and communications asset of the Turkish government.” Anonymous claims to have taken down several websites across Turkey, targeting municipal governments in Mersin and Izmir as well the Gebze Institute of Technology. Source: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/151067/turkish-gov-39-t-websites-hacked-by-anonymous.html

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Turkish gov’t websites hacked by Anonymous

Preparing for Battle: DDoS Attacks On Business

Lately, DDoS attacks have crept back into the headlines, forcing businesses to reacquaint themselves with the concept. DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service which uses multiple machines to carry out a DoS attack on unsuspecting victims. It is estimated that over 7,000 attacks happen daily with the motives and severity of consequences varying between different attacks but all have the potential to greatly harm a company’s operations. To minimize any possible damage, it is important to prepare a defense against these malicious attacks especially as they are on the rise and could target your business at any moment. How to realize you are in the midst of a DDoS attack At the beginning of a DDoS attack, you may fail to even realize what is occurring. The optimistic side of you wants to believe that your marketing efforts have finally kicked in and created a sudden wave of interested customers to your website. However great that may be, the reality is as the numbers increase and overwhelm your servers, you are more likely to be under attack. When a DDoS attack occurs they are using one of two avenues: a special malware that infects the machines of others in order to carry out the attack from a large number of hosts or utilizing a large number of volunteers to their cause to perform the attack in unison. Regardless of the technique employed, they both use many host computers to access the target’s website and overwhelm their servers which results in long periods of downtime. Why Attackers Target You The reasons behind DDoS attacks can vary depending on the organization performing the attack and who they are attacking. The most common reason behind an attack is extortion where they perform a small attack on your servers first, then contact you demanding a certain amount of money to prevent a larger attack from occurring. The more profitable a company you are, the higher the chance you will be a target for extortion. Also, if your organization is currently in the spotlight for political controversy, there are many “hacktivists,” like the group Anonymous, who carry out DDoS attacks to satisfy their political agenda. Lastly, in sophisticated and large-scale attacks, the hackers could be attempting a security breach in order to obtain confidential information. All of these causes could create a devastating impact upon your company’s image. The Effects of DDoS Attacks 1. Revenue The more heavily you rely on your website as a means for business, the more severe a DDoS attack will affect your company. The average daily revenue loss from attacks for those that depend heavily on the Internet for their business is $2,000,000 or nearly $100,000 per hour. Even if you are a smaller organization with less reliance on the Internet, the average loss is $10,000 per hour when in downtime. These are significant amounts of losses that could be hard to recover from, especially for a small business. 2. Reputation As a DDoS attack is occurring, it becomes nearly impossible for any customer to access your website and results in an unpleasant experience for them. For instance, if you are a banking website, they can’t access their accounts which is very critical and leaves them feeling like their private information is at risk. Even after the attack is over, you will have to spend time and money in public relations efforts to reinstate faith in your service from your customer base. 3. Lawsuits When the attack breaches security and confidential information, a risk for lawsuits from customers and consumer protection groups occurs. Now you are not only looking at revenue loss from the downtime and from a loss of reputation but also, significant legal fees associated with your company failing to protect customer information. If all three occur, the DDoS attack could be enough to send your company into bankruptcy and impending failure. How to Protect Your Company The devastating effects from a DDoS attack is enough to leave you shaking in your boots, however most companies still fail to provide adequate protection against said attacks. As the sophistication of these attacks increase, your company’s firewall and current security measures may not be enough to handle a full-scale attack. In a recent survey, Neustar only found that 3% of the surveyed organizations had an anti-DoS solution. Here are some steps you should take to protect your company in the event of a DDoS attack: Develop a defense strategy immediately so you are prepared to take action when an attack occurs. Identify current security lapses or vulnerabilities within your website. If you have been a victim from an attack, keep information collected about it so you can determine how to properly fight off future attacks Simulate a DDoS attack to ensure your response measures are adequate. Consider purchasing an anti-DoS service from a security provider to narrow the possibility of attack. Combine anti-DoS service with the above steps to provide a comprehensive approach to protection. As DDoS attacks are on the rise, now is the time to prepare your company in the event of attack. Even smaller organizations could become victims, so it is important to be ready to defend your company’s website and servers from hackers. Following the steps for protection can prevent a DDoS attack from causing results that could be extremely difficult to recover from, allowing you to come out victorious in an otherwise disastrous situation. Source: http://technologyadvice.com/preparing-for-battle-ddos-attacks-on-business/

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Preparing for Battle: DDoS Attacks On Business

DDoS Attacks – Understanding the Dangers

If you’re a small business owner, or if you own Web space for any reason, one of the new threats that have no doubt begun to appear on your horizon is the potential of being attacked online. Fortunately for the hackers, not a lot of people understand what online attacks really are, how they pull them off, or how to effectively protect from it. Most computer repair experts agree it is hard to guarantee 100 percent security, but you can take the necessary precautions to minimize damages if your security is ever compromised. Taking precautions starts by understanding the dangers: One of the most common types of attack that takes place these days is a DDOS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack. This type of attack is particularly effective because it doesn’t require an intimate knowledge of your security to be deployed. It just takes brute force. Prior to the scheduled attack, the hacker will create a swarm of “zombie” computers — computers infected by the hacker’s software. This software allows the hacker to use the processing power of thousands of computers belonging to other people to bring down your server. When the attack commences, the hacker tells the zombie computers to simultaneously and continually load information from your Web server. If the attack is powerful enough, your server will stop serving. It will become unreachable so even legitimate visitors can’t access the site. While this intense strain is taking over your server, the hacker can try to slip into the back door unnoticed. This is where a lot of the actual financial loss associated with DDOS attacks come from. Scared yet? Don’t be…too scared. Most DDOS attacks happen to high-profile sites that make a lot of money online and that have a lot to lose from even a temporary outage. But there’s still a chance it could happen to you for reasons beyond your control. So how do you protect against such a large-scale attack? The easiest way is to talk to your in-house IT Department and have them work through the nine steps that help defend against a DDOS attack. No IT onsite? Then call your trusted IT or computer repair professionals and tell them you want to prepare for a DDOS attack. They can best help you and recommend plans to upgrade your servers or to install special software that can determine legitimate traffic from DDOS attacks. They might also want to talk with you about the current security software you’re using. An off-the-shelf program probably won’t defend very well against this new type of attack, so talk with your IT professional about the options available to you. As always, the best defense is vigilance. As you’re managing your website, be sure to note any suspicious traffic, educate your staff on safe practices and call your computer repair professionals as soon as you note suspicious activity. Most likely it won’t be anything, but it never hurts to ask. For protection against your eCommerce site click here . Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/05/22/ddos-attacks-understanding-the-dangers/