Tag Archives: ddos

Silk Road 2.0 Hit by ‘Sophisticated’ DDoS Attack

Online black market Silk Road 2.0 experienced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack last week, which forced the site’s administrators to temporarily suspend services. News of the attack broke on bitcoin forums hours after it started, with the Silk Road team soon confirming the news via its own forums. For reasons that are less clear, black market Agora has faced outage issues problems of its own in the last few days. Silk Road remains defiant Silk Road 2.0 moderator ‘Defcon’ issued a statement saying that the site was facing a “very sophisticated” DDoS attack using the most advanced methods the site has experienced to date. The moderator said: “The dev team is working around the clock to get marketplace service restored, as well as watch the security of our systems closely. Much of the downtime you have seen is intentional on our part: if this is an attempt to locate our servers through packet analysis, we do not want to make it easy for our adversary and would rather be offline while we adapt our defences.” As the attack continued, Silk Road 2.0 remained offline. Defcon eventually issued a second update, indicating that the team is trying out different approaches to blocking the inbound DDoS. He stressed that the site is still processing withdrawals, although these have been delayed by the attacks. Silk Road 2.0 is aware that cashflow is very important and the site is therefore prioritising delayed withdrawals, the moderator added. Defcon ended the update on a defiant note: “To our adversaries: you cannot stop us. We will overcome every attack.” Questions persist Silk Road 2.0 vendors started reporting problems earlier last week, before the site was finally forced to shut down. Despite official updates, the outage prompted a number vendors to raise questions about the impact of the attack. Silk Road 2.0 was targeted by hackers in the past: last February, the site lost 4,476 BTC to an alleged hack, worth over $2.6m at the time. The attack was blamed on a transaction malleability exploit used by one of the vendors. The site decided to compensate affected customers and, by late May, it said more than 80% of bitcoins stolen in the alleged heist have been repaid to the victims. The source and goal of the latest attack remains unclear. Speculation is mounting that the attack was in fact launched by law enforcement in an attempt to ascertain the location of Silk Road 2.0 servers, while other users believe the attack was launched by criminals or competitors. Following the February hack, Silk Road 2.0 said it would introduce a multi-signature wallet system to replace its previous escrow platform. A multisig system should be less vulnerable to hackers, but has not been fully implemented yet. Online black market Agora faces outage Silk Road 2.0 is not the only black market suffering outage issues. While Silk Road 2.0 was struggling to restore services, which it eventually did late on Friday, competing market Agora went offline. Agora users started reporting intermittent problems on Saturday. The site was out of action over much of the weekend and had still not become available by press time (12:15 BST, Monday). The reason for the outage remains unclear. Earlier this month, Agora confirmed that it was suffering from availability issues on a regular basis. However, the team offered an extensive explanation into the inner workings of the market and the need for security, saying it considers that more important than around-the-clock availability. The Agora team said at the time: “Our primary goal is to stay hidden from law enforcement agencies and secure from hackers. We implement much more security measures than many others, which causes problems with availability.” Source: http://www.coindesk.com/silk-road-2-0-shrugs-sophisticated-ddos-attack/

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Silk Road 2.0 Hit by ‘Sophisticated’ DDoS Attack

How Boston Children’s Hospital Hit Back at Anonymous

Hackers purportedly representing Anonymous hit Boston Children’s Hospital with phishing and DDoS attacks this spring. The hospital fought back with vigilance, internal transparency and some old-fashioned sneakernet. That – and a little bit of luck – kept patient data safe. On March 20, Dr. Daniel J. Nigrin, senior vice president for information services and CIO at Boston Children’s Hospital, got word that his organization faced an imminent threat from Anonymous in response to the hospital’s diagnosis and treatment of a 15-year-old girl removed from her parent’s care by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The hospital’s incident response team quickly convened. It prepared for the worst: “Going dark” – or going completely offline for as long as the threat remained. Luckily, it never came to that. Attacks did occur, commencing in early April and culminating on Easter weekend – also the weekend of Patriot’s Day, a Massachusetts holiday and the approximate one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings – but slowed to a trickle after, of all things, after a front-page story about the incident ran in The Boston Globe . No patient data was compromised over the course of the attacks, Nigrin says, thanks in large part to the vigilance of Boston Children’s (and, when necessary, third-party security firms). The organization did learn a few key lessons from the incident, and Nigrin shared them at the recent HIMSS Media Privacy and Security Forum. As Anonymous Hit, Boston Children’s Hit Back As noted, the hospital incident response team – not just the IT department’s – planned for the worst. Despite that fact that the information Anonymous claimed to have, such as staff phone numbers and home addresses, is the stuff of “script kiddies,” Nigrin says Children’s took the threat seriously. Attacks commenced about three weeks after the initial March 20 warning. Initially, the hospital could handle the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on its own. Anonymous changed tactics. Children’s responded. The hackers punched. The hospital counterpunched. As the weekend neared, though, DDoS traffic hit 27 Gbps – 40 times Children’s typical traffic – and the hospital had to turn to a third-party for help. The attacks hit Children’s external websites and networks. (Hackers also pledged to hit anyone linked to Children’s – including the energy provider NStar, which played no role in the child custody case at all but sponsors Children’s annual walkathon.) In response, Nigrin took down all websites and shut down email, telling staff in person that email had been compromised. Staff communicated using a secure text messaging application the hospital had recently deployed. Internal systems were OK, he says, so Children’s electronic health record (EHR) system, and therefore its capability to access patient data, wasn’t impacted. In contrast to this internal transparency, Children’s, at the urging of federal investigators, didn’t communicate anything externally. Nonetheless, word got to The Boston Globe , which ran its front-page story on April 23. Nigrin, again, prepared for the worst. He didn’t have to. After the article came out, the Twitter account @YourAnonNews took notice, urging hackers to stop targeting a children’s hospital. Attacks continued, but at a much smaller clip. 6 Quick Tips for Beating Back Hackers In reflecting on the Anonymous attack, Nigrin offers the following security lessons that Boston Children’s learned. DDoS countermeasures are crucial. “We’re not above these kinds of attacks,” Nigrin says. Know which systems depend on external Internet access. As noted, the EHR system was spared, but the e-prescribing system wasn’t. Get an alternative to email. In addition to secure testing, Children’s used Voice over IP communications. In the heat of the moment, make no excuses when pushing security initiatives. Children’s had to shut down email, e-prescribing and external-facing websites quickly. “Don’t wait until it’s a fire drill,” Nigrin says. Secure your teleconferences. Send your conference passcode securely, not in the body of your calendar invite. Otherwise, the call can be recorded and posted on the Internet before you even hang up, he says. Separate signals from noise. Amid the Anonymous attack, several staff members reported strange phone calls from a number listed as 000-000-0000. At the time, it was hard to tell if this was related, and it made the whole incident that much harder to manage. Above all, Nigrin says healthcare organizations need to pay attention to the growing number of security threats the industry faces. “There are far more than we have seen in the past,” he says. Source: http://www.cio.com/article/2682872/healthcare/how-boston-childrens-hospital-hit-back-at-anonymous.html

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How Boston Children’s Hospital Hit Back at Anonymous

5 most targeted industries for DDoS attacks

1. Gaming Gaming is the most-targeted industry, according to the report, accounting for more than 45% of total attacks. The industry, which includes any company related to online gaming or gaming-related content, is prone to attacks by motivated players seeking to gain a competitive advantage or by malicious actors seeking to steal personal data from players. The industry received a large percentage of infrastructure layer attacks and a fair percentage of application-layer attacks in Q2, including 46% of all NYN floods and 68% of GET floods. 2. Software and technology The software and technology industry, which includes companies that provide solutions such as SaaS and cloud-based technologies, was hit with the second-greatest number of attacks (22%), and was the most-frequently targeted with infrastructure-layer attacks. The report reveals that the most popular attack vectors against the software and technology industry were DNS and NTP reflection and amplification attacks, accounting for 33% and 26% respectively. SYN floods made up approximately 22% of attacks, and UDP floods accounted for 27%. 3. Media and entertainment The report reveals that the media and entertainment industry accounted for a smaller percentage of all attacks, at 15% in Q2. This marks a 39% decrease from last quarter. Despite this shift, the media and entertainment industry remains one of the most targeted industries for hackers. These attacks often offer higher visibility for malicious actors, with press coverage that helps campaign organizers reach out to supporters and recruit new participants. The media and entertainment industry was hit by mostly infrastructure attacks, including SYN floods (18%), UDP floods (25%) and UDP fragments (22%). 4. Financial services Major financial institutions, such as banks and trading platforms, were targeted in 10% of all attacks in Q2, according to the Prolexic report. Historically, financial institutions have been the target of many DDoS attacks, including those orchestrated by the group Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters (QCF), using the Brobot botnet. The report discloses that recent activity indicates a possible resurgence of the use of the Brobot botnet, but the financial sector did not experience many major attack campaigns this quarter. 5. Internet and telecom Including companies that offer internet-related services such as ISPs and CNDs, the internet and telecom industry was the fifth most-targeted industry in Q2, accounting for 4% of all attacks. Infrastructure-layer attack vectors were the most common, with 10% of all attacks as UPD floods, and 9% as UPD fragments. Internet and telecom was the target of 12% of all NTP flood attacks this quarter. Source: http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2014/09/12/5-most-targeted-industries-for-ddos-attacks?t=tech-management&page=6

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5 most targeted industries for DDoS attacks

Webmin hole allows attackers to wipe servers clean

No RCE, but lots of Unix DDoS fun Holes in the Webmin Unix management tool – thankfully since patched – could allow attackers to delete data on servers, says security researcher John Gordon of the University of Texas.…

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Webmin hole allows attackers to wipe servers clean

WEBINAR – The Ultimate DDoS Info Session

DOSarrest and HOSTING partner together to help you understand the details of DDoS attacks – how they are executed, what they typically targets and how to quickly and efficiently recovered when you fall victor. It will be an interactive and informative session as all attendees will have a chance to participate in and defend against a DDoS attack in Real-Time and see its effects on a live website. Click here to register today!

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WEBINAR – The Ultimate DDoS Info Session

Week in review: Linux systems ensnared in DDoS botnet and Home Depot breach

Here's an overview of some of last week's most interesting news, podcasts, and articles: IT security is a matter of accountability The CEO has always had responsibility for the overall growth an…

Hackers upload malicious files on the Obamacare website to launch a DDoS Attack

In what could be another jolt for US President Barack Obama’s dream project ‘Obamacare health insurance program’, a government cybersecurity team last week discovered that an unknown hacker or a group of hackers tried to peep into a computer server supporting the HealthCare.gov website by apparently uploading malicious files. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the lead Obamacare agency, on Thursday briefed about the intrusions to top congressional staff. “The first incidence of breach occurred on July 8”, Aaron Albright, CMS spokesman, said. According to Albright, the main objective of the hackers was not to steal personal data but to launch a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against other websites. In a DDoS attack, the malwares trying to communicate with the website makes the computers with internet-connectivity so overwhelmed that they fail to handle legitimate requests and lead to crash. “Our review indicates that the server did not contain consumer personal information; data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted. We have taken measures to further strengthen security,” Albright said. Albright also shed out speculations that the attack would adversely impact on the second round of enrollment period, which begins on November 15, for the health coverage under the Obamacare. Meanwhile, the CMS’s parent agency – Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services- and the HHS leadership have been notified of the attack and sources say investigation is under process. The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that the affected server has been forensically preserved by its Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). The agency, which is also responsible in investigating cyber attacks, said that they had identified the malware designed to launch the DDoS attack and extracted them. Source: http://www.wallstreetotc.com/hackers-launch-ddos-attack-on-obamacare-website-server-user-data-safe/28570/

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Hackers upload malicious files on the Obamacare website to launch a DDoS Attack

Hackers launch DDoS attack on Obamacare website server, user data safe

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Hackers launch DDoS attack on Obamacare website server, user data safe

Report on China’s underground services for DDoS Attacks

After analyzing trends in the Chinese underground, Trend Micro found that activity in the marketplace doubled between 2012 and 2013. Upon an even closer look, researchers at the firm also found that the most coveted tools and services in the underground were compromised hosts, remote access trojans (RATs) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack services. Trend Micro’s new research paper, “The Chinese Underground in 2013,”(PDF) detailed criminal activity facilitated in the space, and in a Thursday interview with SCMagazine.com, Christopher Budd, global threat communication manager at the company, said that, among the products, compromised hosts were most sought after. In the report, Trend Micro defined “compromised hosts” as client workstations or servers that cybercriminals “have gained command and control of” without the owners’ consent. “That makes sense, because the compromised host is a multi-tasker,” Budd said. “It’s kind of a like a Swiss army knife – you can do multiple things with it.” The report also highlighted the going rate last year for popular black market services. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) offerings, for instance, were offered for anywhere from $16 per day to nearly $500 for a “lifetime” DDoS toolkit rental, the report revealed. Researchers also monitored underground activity centered around mobile attacks. Trend Micro found that the most in demand offerings were SMS spamming services, SMS servers and premium service numbers. Overall, the report noted that the increased activity in the China’s underground took into account, both the number of participants and the number of product and services offerings in 2013. In his interview, Rudd also noted that attacks, facilitated through shady transactions in China’s underground market, were most often aimed at other users in the country – an ongoing trend that will likely continue. “The participants in the Chinese underground looking inward, and the Russian underground looking outward [in attacks], has been a consistent trend,” Budd said. “And partly, that’s linguistic, because the people in the Chinese underground market [products and services] in Chinese as opposed to English – [but] it’s a combination of cultural and linguistic factors,” he said. Source: http://www.scmagazine.com/report-chinas-underground-activity-doubled-last-year/article/369849/

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Report on China’s underground services for DDoS Attacks

Anti-Piracy Outfit Denies launching DDoS attacks on Anime Sites

The effects of a DDoS attack that crippled NYAA, one of the largest anime torrent sites, continue today with fingers being pointed at everyone from the Japanese government to an anti-piracy group working with anime distributors. Subtitling site HorribleSubs, which was also affected, has its own ideas. Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attacks are a relatively common occurrence in the file-sharing community and something that many sites are subjected to throughout the course of a year. They disrupt service and can often cost money to mitigate. Those carrying out the attacks have a variety of motives, from extortion and blackmail to “the lulz“, and a dozen reasons in between. Often the reasons are never discovered. During the past few days several sites involved in the unauthorized sharing of anime have been targeted by DDoS-style attacks. Swaps24 reported that Haruhichan, Tokyo Toshokan and AnimeTake were under assault from assailants unknown, although all now appear to be back online. A far more serious situation has played out at NYAA.se, however. The site is probably the largest public dedicated anime torrent index around and after being hit with an attack last weekend it remains offline today. The attack on NYAA had wider effects too. NYAA and leading fan-subbing site HorribleSubs reportedly shared the same hosting infrastructure so the DDoS attack took down both sites. That’s significant, not least since at the end of August HorribleSubs reported that their titles had been downloaded half a billion times. As the image above shows it now appears that HorribleSubs has recovered (and added torrent magnet links) but the same cannot be said about NYAA. The site’s extended downtime continues with no apparent end in sight. This has resulted in a backlash from the site’s fans and somewhat inevitably accusatory fingers are being pointed at potential DDoS suspects. As far-fetched as it might sound, one of the early suspects was the Japanese government itself. The launch of a brand new anti-piracy campaign last month in partnership with 15 producers certainly provided a motive, but a nation carrying out this kind of assault seems unlikely in the extreme. Quickly, however, an announcement from HorribleSubs turned attentions elsewhere. “Chill down. It’s not just us. Every famous anime sites [are] getting DDoS attacks, but that doesn’t mean this is the end,” the site’s operator wrote on Facebook. “We have located where DDoS are coming from. It’s from ?#?Crunchyroll? and ?#?Funimation? Employees.” Funimation is an US television and film production company best known for its distribution of anime while Crunchyroll is a website and community focused on, among other things, Asian anime and manga. While both could at least have a motive to carry out a DDoS, no evidence has been produced to back up the HorribleSubs claims. That said, HorribleSubs admits that its key motivation is to annoy Crunchyroll. “We do not translate our own shows because we rip from Crunchyroll, FUNimation, Hulu, The Anime Network, Niconico, and Daisuki,” the site’s about page reads, adding: “We aren’t doing this for e-penis but for the sole reason of pissing off Crunchyroll.” Shortly after, attention turned to anti-piracy outfit Remove Your Media (RYM). The company works with anime companies Funimation and Viz Media, which includes the sending of millions of DMCA notices to Google. The spark came when the company published a tweet (now removed) which threatened to send “thousands” of warning letters to NYAA users once the site was back online. This doesn’t seem like an idle threat. A few weeks ago the company posted a screenshot on Twitter containing an unredacted list of Comcast, Charter and CenturyLink IP addresses said to have been monitored infringing copyright. Due to the NYAA downtime, RYM later indicated it had switched to warning users of Kickass.to. This involvement with anime companies combined with the warning notice statement led to DDoS accusations being directed at RYM. TorrentFreak spoke to the company’s Eric Green and asked if they knew anything about the attacks. “The short answer is No. In fact we were waiting for [NYAA] to go back online to begin monitoring illegal transfers again. Sorry to disappoint but we had no involvement,” Green told TF. Just a couple of hours ago RYM made a new announcement on Twitter, stating that the original tweet had been removed due to false accusations. “Nyaa post deleted due to all the Ddos libel directed at this account. Infringement notices continue to ISPs, for piracy, regardless of tracker,” they conclude. Although it’s impossible to say who is behind the attacks, it does seem improbable that an anti-piracy company getting paid to send notices would do something that is a) seriously illegal and b) counter-productive to getting paid for sending notices. That said, it seems likely that someone who doesn’t appreciate unofficial anime sites operating smoothly is behind the attack. Who that might be will remain a mystery, at least for now. Source: http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-outfit-denies-ddosing-anime-sites-140904/