Five detained in KPN, Ziggo DDoS cyberattack

Four underage boys and one man were arrested for cyberattacks on the internet service providers Ziggo and KPN. The five were interrogated by the police department’s High Tech Crime Team (THTC) throughout Tuesday following the arrest for Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on both companies. All suspects were released Tuesday night after questioning. Two attacks on Ziggo in August left internet and email users without services for days, affecting a recorded 1.8 million of the company’s customers, including hospitals and medical facilities. Ziggo previously said they would not be refunding customers for their time without service. The quintet is also accused of posting videos that threatened DDoS attacks against both KPN and Ziggo, although they tried to remain unidentifiable in the video threat. Journalists at the NL Times viewed the videos at the time of the attacks on YouTube. At the time of the cyberattacks, videos surfaced online claiming responsibility, and an allegiance to hacktivist collective Anonymous. Police reported that their impression was that “The boys wanted to show that they were capable of great things.” The three youths aged between 14 and 17 years and the 21-year-old man hail from the Gelderland towns of Berkelland and Lochem, the Noord-Holland municipalities Den Helder and Schoorl, and Vinkeveen in Utrecht. Their computers, mobile phones, external hard drives and USB memory sticks were all seized from their families’ homes. The prosecutor assigned to the case decided they will wait to proceed further until investigators conclude their analysis. Police and the Public Prosecutor have urged that this is not a game and carries a criminal prosecution with up to 10 years imprisonment and the possibility of financial compensation for the damage done. Source: http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/10/07/five-detained-in-kpn-ziggo-ddos-cyberattack/

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Five detained in KPN, Ziggo DDoS cyberattack

Gamers DDoS Thai government sites to protest “Great Firewall of Thailand”

Gamers and privacy campaigners in Thailand have claimed responsibility for the recent take down of several government websites in a coordinated DDoS attack last week. The attacks were in protest at government plans to route the entire country’s Internet through a single gateway, creating what has become known as “The Great Firewall of Thailand” in a nod to China’s strict control over Internet services. According to Al Jazeera, the Anti-CAT Tower Mob—which includes e-sports gamers amongst its ranks—along with the Citizens Against Single Gateway Facebook groups called upon their hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans to execute a simple DDoS attack. The fans were instructed to visit official government websites while constantly refreshing the page, causing them to crash. Over half a dozen government sites, including the Ministry of Defence, and the main government website, were taken down. In response, Thai Police announced that those targeting government sites could be charged under Article 10 of the Computer Crimes Act of 2007, and face up to five years in prison. While the controversial act has resulted in some amusing law enforcement moments in the past—including Thai military leaders warning against “underboob selfies,” it has also been used to ban Bitcoin, Uber, and dictator-simulation game Tropico 5. An estimated 110,000 websites were blocked as of 2010. With e-sports rapidly growing in popularity across Thailand, gamers have been one of the bigger online groups to oppose the single gateway. They have even personified the gateway plans themselves in the form of an anime-style villain called Nong Kalaland, who’s said to hold “the power to control the internet in her fist.” Her namesake headpiece, a coconut shell (kala), is meant to represent Thailand’s self-obsession and wilful ignorance of the larger world, according to Thai site Khaosod. The Thai government has since backed down from its single gateway plans, with the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Uttama Savanayana, saying that the plans were simply intended to increase Thailand’s competitive edge in the online economic sector. He added that the single-gateway concept was the prime minister’s idea, and would ensure that young people who used the Internet were shielded from abuse. He also promised that the government would not infringe on the public’s right to privacy and freedom of expression. Source: http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/10/gamers-ddos-thai-government-sites-to-protest-great-firewall-of-thailand/

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Gamers DDoS Thai government sites to protest “Great Firewall of Thailand”

Remote code exec hijack hole found in Huawei 4G USB modems

Ruskies sling malicious packet to trigger denial of service. Positive Technologies researchers Timur Yunusov and Kirill Nesterov have found since-patched remote execution and denial of service vulnerabilities in a popular Huawei 4G USB modem that can allow attackers to hijack connected computers.…

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Remote code exec hijack hole found in Huawei 4G USB modems

Attackers prefer lower-bandwidth DDoS attacks

Analyzing customer data, Corero found that attackers are continuing to leverage sub-saturating DDoS attacks with increasing frequency, using shorter attack durations to evade legacy cloud DDoS scrubbi…

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Attackers prefer lower-bandwidth DDoS attacks

Businesses Beware – DDoS Attacks Are On The Rise Again Read

British businesses are being warned to bump up their protection against Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks after a new study found that the number of such assaults rose hugely in the last quarter. Research by Corero Network Security found that its customers had endured a 32 percent increase in DDoS attacks compared to the previous quarter – an average of 4.5 per day. That’s according to its Trends and Analysis Report for the first half of 2015, which also found that most of the recorded DDoS attacks were smash and grab assaults that lasted less than 30 minutes. Targeted The report found that the DDoS attacks targeting its customers in the first three months of 2015 remained relatively consistent from the previous quarter – averaging three attacks per day. The daily attack volume increased in the second quarter to an average of 4.5 attacks. Corero says that the increasing use of such attacks is down to the ease in purchasing and launching DDoS attack tools, many of which can be obtained for free, and the ability to easily include these into part of a larger strategy. “Attackers are continuing to leverage DDoS attacks as part of their cyber threat arsenal to either disrupt business operations or access sensitive corporate information, and they’re doing it in increasingly creative ways that circumvent traditional security solutions or nullify the previous effectiveness of scrubbing centres,” said Dave Larson, CTO and vice president, product, Corero Network Security. “In order to effectively protect their networks, prevent disruptions to customer operations, and better protect against data theft and financial loss, companies need real-time visibility and mitigation of all DDoS attack traffic targeting their networks, regardless of size or duration.” Under attack The past few months have seen several high profile DDoS attacks as cybercriminals look to take advantage of slightly less well-developed defences in this area. NatWest’s online banking system was the victim of an attack back in August, as was parenting website Mumsnet, showing the range of potential targets. However companies are beginning to fight back against the DDoS threat, with BT announcing today the release of its own cloud-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation platform, claiming that the service will help its customers stay secure amidst growing numbers of cyber-attacks. Source: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/security/cyberwar/corero-ddos-attacks-rise-178274#jzBwTomdGAO2LL7m.99

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Businesses Beware – DDoS Attacks Are On The Rise Again Read

Early warning helped five Russian banks ward off DDoS attacks

Five Russian banks that experienced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack Sept. 26 believed to have been aimed at starting a bitcoin-related panic had been warned in advance by the General Directorate of Security and Information Protection of the country’s Central Bank. The regulatory body’s deputy director, Artyom Sychev, was quoted by The CoinTelegraph as saying the attackers were likely trying to cause panic and destabilization rather than collect a bitcoin ransom. The early warning helped the banks fend off the attack, although they did receive threatening letters in the aftermath. The CoinTelegraph also quoted a Central Bank official saying that the letters said, “To prevent such acts in the future, the attackers are asking to send only 50 BTC to their Bitcoin wallet.” Source: http://www.scmagazine.com/ddos-attacks-on-russian-banks-reportedly-aimed-at-causing-bitcoin-panic/article/442842/

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Early warning helped five Russian banks ward off DDoS attacks

Hand-cranked ‘DDoS’ floors Thai government website amid protests

Great Firewall of Thailand? ?????????????????, say locals Thai government websites dropped offline this week in what was either a politically motivated distributed denial-of-service attack or a case of badly designed websites falling over in response to an unusual increase in visitor numbers.…

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Hand-cranked ‘DDoS’ floors Thai government website amid protests

Unexpectedly benevolent malware improves security of routers, IoT devices

At this point in time, the existence of a botnet comprising of tens of thousands of compromised routers and other IoT devices is not news. Nevertheless, this latest one mapped by researchers is a spec…

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Unexpectedly benevolent malware improves security of routers, IoT devices

Vigilante VXer FIXES SOHOpeless routers

Stallman sycophant offers password reminders and handy debug tips. Threat boffin Mario Ballano says VXers have broken into a host of routers creating a botnet dedicated solely to securing and hardening the devices.…

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Vigilante VXer FIXES SOHOpeless routers

Patch NOW: VMware vCenter, ESXi can be pwned via your network

Remote-code execution danger on VM hosts VMware is urging users of its vCenter Server and ESXi software to install its latest patches to plug vulnerabilities that can allow remote-code execution and denial of service.…

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Patch NOW: VMware vCenter, ESXi can be pwned via your network