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Remember the Russian Attack on the Internet?

December 17, 2017

Remember the Russian Attack on the Internet?

In 2016, a bot, named Mirai, wrecked havoc over the global internet with massive waves of DoS attacks on anything, from French telecoms, to U.S. web services, to Russian banks, to African airports and beyond. Per Wired, “As the 2016 US presidential election drew near, fears began to mount that the so-called Mirai botnet might be the work of a nation-state practicing for an attack that would cripple the country as voters went to the polls.”

Of course, the minute there is any suspicion of the ‘nation-state’ actors behind the attack, we know that is the code word for ‘the Russians’. And, of course, given the sheer number of ‘security research’ lackeys eagerly awaiting for the U.S. or UK or EU dollars/pounds/euros in grants and subsidies, the ‘Russian’ spectre loomed large in the wake of Mirai havoc. Here’s a snapshot:

  • http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2016/10/12/research-shows-russian-hackers-could-be-behind-the-mirai-botnet/
  • https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/who-shut-down-u-s-internet-friday-n671011
  • https://twitter.com/hackerfantastic/status/782840355116969984
  • https://www.networkworld.com/article/3130504/security/record-iot-ddos-attacks-raise-bar-for-defenders.html
  • https://www.csoonline.com/article/3144200/security/expect-more-iot-botnet-attacks-mirai-source-code-now-freely-available.html
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/business/internet-problems-attack.html

But, in the end, the famous DoS attack was down to just three U.S. students: https://www.wired.com/story/mirai-botnet-minecraft-scam-brought-down-the-internet/?mbid=social_twitter. Which, sort of, begs a question: how many ‘security experts’ of the ‘Russian spectre looms large over everything’ variety have lost their lucrative contracts with the Government, the media and the think tanks that provide platforms to the endless Russophobic hysteria? My bet is: none. Like in the good old days of the Soviet empire, you can’t get fired for lying in Pravda… 

The Next Cyber Hurricane Is Coming And It’ll Take Down The Internet

October 24, 2017

The Next Cyber Hurricane Is Coming And It’ll Take Down The Internet

botnet mit bot herder 3D

Last year, the botnet Mirai caused a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in October, knocking popular websites off the internet for millions of users. Right now, the next cyber hurricane is on the way, and it could take down the entire internet.

According to ZD Net, the botnet, dubbed “Reaper” by researchers at Netlab 360, is appearing on the radar of security researchers.  A little over a month ago, the researchers detected the sizable botnet of infected Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Now, just weeks later, it’s on track to become one of the largest botnets recorded in recent years.

The botnet is said to have ensnared almost two million Internet-connected webcams, security cameras, and digital video recorders (DVRs) in the past month, says Check Point, which also published research, putting its growth at a far faster pace than Mirai.

Mirai was “beautifully simple,” said Ken Munro, a consultant at UK-based security firm Pen Test Partners. The malware would scan the internet and infect connected devices with default usernames and passwords, which either weren’t or couldn’t be changed by the owner. The collective bandwidth from the huge number of “zombie devices” that were infected and enslaved was directed at Dyn, an internet infrastructure company, which overloaded the company’s systems and prevented millions from accessing popular websites.

Reaper, on the other hand, is much more complex. It’s “what Mirai could easily have been,” said Munro. It takes a slightly different, more advanced approach by quietly targeting and exploiting known vulnerabilities in devices and injecting its malicious code. This effectively hijacks the device for whenever the botnet controller is ready to issue their commands. Each time a device is infected, the device spreads the malware to other vulnerable devices just like a worm.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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