The Internet is Held Together With Spit & Baling Wire

A visualization of the Internet made using network routing data. Image: Barrett Lyon, opte.org. Imagine being able to disconnect or redirect Internet traffic destined for some of the worlds biggest companies -- just by spoofing an email. This is the nature of a threat vector recently removed by a...

Dyn DDoS Work of Script Kiddies, Not Politically Motivated Hackers

New research on the source of Friday’s DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn indicates that script kiddies are likely responsible, rather than a politically motivated actor. Researchers at Flashpoint dismissed numerous claims of responsibility that separately linked the attack to the Russian...

Chinese Manufacturer Recalls IOT Gear Following Dyn DDoS

Hangzhou Xiongmai said that it will recall millions of cameras sold in the U.S. in response to Friday’s DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn that kept a number of web-based services such as Twitter, Github and others offline for much of the day. The Chinese manufacturer sells OEM white-label...

Mirai Bots More Than Double Since Source Code Release

The Mirai malware continues to recruit vulnerable IoT devices into botnets at a record pace, one that’s only gone up since the source code for Mirai was made public two weeks ago. Level 3 Communications, a telecommunications company and Internet service provider in Colorado, has identified the...

RPC Portmapper Reflective DDoS Attacks

A number web hosting providers and businesses in the gaming industry were last month guinea pigs for a new type of amplified DDoS attack. Attackers have figured out how to use Portmapper, or RPC Portmapper, in reflection attacks where victims are sent copious amounts of responses from Portmapper...