PayPal, Spotify, Twitter, Airbnb, the Sony PlayStation Network – what is the connection? These were some of the sites and services that were disrupted as a result of the DDoS attack on Dyn, the cloud DNS provider, last October. The attack is believed to have been caused by the Mirai botnet, which takes advantage of unprotected IoT devices such as…
UK authorities have charged an eighteen-year-old with running a DDoS booter service that was used to launch DDoS attacks on legitimate businesses across the world. According to authorities, the teenager’s name is Jack Chappell, 18, of Stockport, a small town southeast of Manchester, UK. Investigators say Chappell created malware that he installed on devices around the world. He used this…
A massive cyberattack that freezes computers and demands a ransom to open them has hit companies in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world today, U.S. officials and private cybersecurity analysts said. Among the American targets are the giant Merck pharmaceutical company in New Jersey; the Mondelez food company, which produces Oreo cookies; and a major multinational law firm, DLA…
The $1 million ransom payment paid last week by South Korean web hosting company Nayana has sparked new extortion attempts on South Korean companies. According to local media, seven banks have received emails that asked the organizations to pay ransoms of nearly $315,000 or suffer downtime via DDoS attacks. Only five of the seven targets are publicly known, which are…
Looking for lots more answers on net neutrality docket. If the FCC was subject to multiple DDoS attacks that affected input in the Open Internet comment docket, leading House Democrats say that raises questions about the FCC’s cybersecurity preparedness that need answers. That came in letters to the FCC and National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. “We ask you to…
Businesses should ensure that they are still securely protected against DDoS attacks, despite the recent growth of other trends such as ransomware. That’s the warning from Arbor Networks, which is urging organisations of all sizes to make sure they stay safe online as DDoS attacks are still rife around the world. Speaking to ITProPortal at the recent InfoSecurity Europe 2017…
Microsoft has confirmed an outage in its Skype offering, which caused connectivity issues earlier this week and is allegedly the result of a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Skype users started complaining about connectivity issues on Monday, with hours of downtime. The issues continued into Tuesday, with users losing connectivity and having trouble exchanging messages on the communications platform. The…
A recent survey by the Ponemon Insitute and the Shared Assessments Program of 553 people with a role in risk management in their organizations found that 94 percent of those surveyed said a security incident related to unsecured IoT devices or applications could be catastrophic. Still, just 44 percent of respondents said their organization has the ability to protect their…
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks leverage compromised devices to generate a flood of traffic, overwhelming online services and rendering them unresponsive. DDoS services are widely available on the internet, with research by Trend Micro finding that the small cost of US$150 can buy a DDoS attack for a week. (It also brings organised crime into your life – but…
The noise created by distributed denial of service attacks is higher than ever - with vendors and attackers complicating the picture - but what do enterprises need to worry about? Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks were one of the most talked about threats at InfoSecurity Europe 2017. One of the things vendors couldn’t agree on however, is the trend…
