Death Knell For DDoS Extortion?

Ron writes "Symantec security researcher Yazan Gable has put forward an explanation as to why the number of denial of service attacks has been declining (coincident with the rise of spam). His theory is that DoS attacks are no longer profitable to attackers. While spam and phishing attacks directly generate profit, he argues that extortion techniques often used with DoS attacks are far more risky and often make an attacker no profit at all. Gable writes: 'So what happens if the target of the attack refuses to pay? The DoS extortionist is obligated to carry out a prolonged DoS attack against them to follow through on their threats. For a DoS extortionist, this is the worst scenario because they have to risk their bot network for nothing at all. Since the target has refused to pay, it is likely that they will never pay. As a consequence, the attacker has to spend time and resources on a lost cause.'"

Comments

Re:Bot network?

[myowntrueself]

You don't need a bot network to be a DoS extortionist. Unplugging your target's modem is just as effective, and has the virtue of simplicity.

I think I see where you are coming from; my ISP is some kind of DoS extortionist... if I stop paying them they DoS me.

Help, I am being exploited! :(