Prolexic Platform Enhancements - New APJ Scrubbing Centers and More

by Don Ng and Greg Burns This October, Akamai is announcing the turn-up of two additional Prolexic DDoS mitigation scrubbing centers in Singapore and Osaka, building on the nine previous scrubbing centers turned up this year and adding to our existing APJ footprint in Sydney, Tokyo, and Hong Kong...

How Shared Pools of Cloud Computing Power Are Changing the Way Attackers Operate

The transformation from racks of physical hardware hosting sites and services to cloud computing has provided organizations with better flexibility and reduced costs. Attackers have seen the benefits to this model and are also taking advantage of cloud computing to make more money, evade detectio...

Chaturbate: Unrestricted POST request size on roomlogin endpoint

POST requests to endpoint /roomlogin/ are not limited in size. While the main website login endpoint correctly limits the size of request, this endpoint does not. This can be a mean to perform a DOS attack. Steps To Reproduce: 1. has a password-protected stream. 2. Send a large POST request to...

Zero Trust Security Architectures - Akamai's Approach

This is Part 5 of a 5 part blog series. Jump to Part 1: Introduction Jump to Part 2: Network Micro-Segmentation Jump to Part 3: Software Defined Perimeter Jump to Part 4: Identity Aware Proxy Introduction In the first part of this blog series, we covered an overview of zero trust architecture...

The World’s Most Popular Coding Language Happens to be Most Hackers’ Weapon of Choice

Python will soon be the world’s most prevalent coding language. That’s quite a statement, but if you look at its simplicity, flexibility and the relative ease with which folks pick it up, it’s not hard to see why The Economist recently touted it as the soon-to-be most used language, globally...

Bitcoin Core Software Patches a Critical DDoS Attack Vulnerability

The Bitcoin Core development team has released an important update to patch a major DDoS vulnerability in its underlying software that could have been fatal to the Bitcoin Network, which is usually known as the most hack-proof and secure blockchain. The DDoS vulnerability, identified as...

Hackers behind Mirai botnet to avoid jail for working with the FBI

By Waqas Mirai has been known as one of the most powerful botnets comprised of millions of hacked Internet of Things IoT devices including routers, digital video recorders DVRs and security cameras. Mirai was also used by hackers to carry out one of the largest DDoS attacks on the servers of DynD...

Mirai Masterminds Helping FBI Snuff Out Cybercrime

The three masterminds behind Mirai – the infamous botnet known for taking down internet services in a 2016 DDoS attack – will work with the FBI in future cybercrime investigations as part of their sentencing for creating and operating the botnet. The three hackers, Paras Jha 22, of New Jersey,...

Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail

Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms. Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and...

Experts Bemoan Shortcomings with IoT Security Bill

An internet of things IoT bill that would mandate unique passwords for connected devices has been approved by the California state legislature. It will be the first potential connected device regulation to come into effect in the United States if California Gov. Jerry Brown decides to sign it —...

Taking Stock: The Internet of Things, and Machine Learning Algorithms at War

It’s in the news every day; hackers targeting banks, hospitals, or, as we’ve come to fear the most, elections. Suffice to say then that cybersecurity has, in the last few years, gone from a relatively obscure industry – let's qualify that: not in the sense of importance, but rather how folks have...

Mirai, Gafgyt Botnets Return to Target Infamous Apache Struts, SonicWall Flaws

Researchers have discovered new variants for the infamous Mirai and Gafgyt IoT botnets – now targeting well-known vulnerabilities in Apache Struts and SonicWall. The new Mirai strain targets the Apache Struts flaw associated with the 2017 Equifax breach, while the Gafgyt variant uses a...

Teen arrested for DDoS attack on ProtonMail & making fake bomb threats

By Waqas ProtonMail, a Swiss-based end-to-end email encryption service, has announced the name of one of the attackers involved in the DDoS attack against the company earlier this year. Due to the attack, the email service of ProtonMail stopped responding for a minute several times despite having...

Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

A 19-year-old man from the United Kingdom who headed a cybercriminal group whose motto was "Feds Can't Touch Us" pleaded guilty this week to making bomb threats against thousands of schools. On Aug. 31, officers with the U.K.'s National Crime Agency NCA arrested Hertfordshire resident George...

GLEG Agora SCADA+ Exploit Pack

OVERVIEW On March 15, 2011, GLEG Ltd. announced the Agora SCADA+ Exploit Pack for Immunity’s CANVAS system. CANVAS is a penetration testing framework that is extensible using CANVAS Exploit Packs. On March 25, 2011, GLEG announced it would be adding exploits for the 35 vulnerabilities released by...

DDoS attack from Anonymous Catalonia cripples Bank of Spain website

By Waqas The official website of Banco de España Bank of Spain, which is the central bank of the country, was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack on Sunday. The attack potentially disrupted the website’s operations and it became inaccessible at the beginning of the week. The attack...

Mirai Variant Cross-Compiles Attack Code with Aboriginal Linux

Criminals behind a Mirai botnet have been spotted using an unusual technique: Leveraging an open-source project called Aboriginal Linux to create a compiled binary, with versions of the malware tailored to each targeted platform. The malware authors are leveraging Aboriginal – a legitimate tool f...

Back to Basics: Why We Need to Encourage More Secure IoT Development

The Internet of Things IoT is radically reshaping the way we live and work. Before our very eyes, organizations are becoming more agile, efficient and cost effective to run, all while consumers marvel at the wonders of the smart home, fitness trackers and connected cars. There’s just one major...

Black Hat Exclusive Video: The IoT Security Threat Looms for Enterprises

IoT devices are everywhere – from connected smart-home gadgets to industrial IoT systems. And it’s not stopping anytime soon – consumer IoT spending is set to reach $62 billion in 2018, making it the fourth largest industry segment, according to market research firm IDC. Many of these IoT devices...

Black Hat 2018: IoT Security Issues Will Lead to Legal ‘Feeding Frenzy’

LAS VEGAS – The troves of insecure internet of things IoT devices have not yet led to widespread legal implications. But that’s set to change, a well-known attorney warned at Black Hat USA last week. Ijay Palansky, partner at the law firm Armstrong Teasdale, said at the conference last week that...