Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Brazilian ISPs Hit With Massive DNS Attack

Posted by Soulskill on from the going-for-the-gusto dept.

wiredmikey writes "Millions of people in Brazil have potentially been exposed to malware, as a result of a nationwide DNS attack. Additionally, several organizations in Brazil are reporting that network devices are also under attack. After being compromised remotely, scores of routers and modems had their DNS settings altered to redirect traffic. In those cases, when employees of the affected companies tried to open any website, they were asked to execute a malicious Java applet, which would install malware presented as 'Google Defence' software."

10 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Creating a massive botnet? by randomErr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like someone is creating a massive botnet for something much bigger or just putting out a warning message. They question is what?

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  2. The modern world sucks. by orphiuchus · · Score: 2

    Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but I would kill to go back and live in a time where you had to actually break into my house to steal from me.

    1. Re:The modern world sucks. by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      Fraud and forgery are very old problems, don't need a computer for them.

      Twice as fast? The 0.3 MIPS 8080 vs. a thousands or tens of thousands of MIPS per core processor of today is a much bigger jump. Or we could talk about retrieval speed of 9 track (125 kbytes / sec) vs. Ultrium LTO-5 ( 140 mbytes / second)

    2. Re:The modern world sucks. by Tsingi · · Score: 2

      Before banks?

      Before governments?

      Before corporations?

    3. Re:The modern world sucks. by Lennie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've noticed a pattern.

      Usually I like companies better if they are not publicly traded at the stock market.

      Publicly trading companies always seem to much focused on the short term.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    4. Re:The modern world sucks. by lgw · · Score: 2

      Yes, those evil corporations. They offer me products I want at prices I am willing to pay and that's just the same as stealing. It's totally evil.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  3. Holy shit that's massive! by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many is a brazilian?

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    1. Re:Holy shit that's massive! by TWX · · Score: 2

      A Brazilian is how many people got attacked, silly!

      You just don't know your SI units because you're probably American. They're well versed in them in South America...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Holy shit that's massive! by aussie.virologist · · Score: 2

      How many is a brazilian?

      Apparently you remove all the 111111111111111111111's and you are left with lots of Oh's

  4. Brazilian DNS attack may be political manoeuver by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A sweeping bill on cybercrime is due to be voted this week in the Brazilian Congress. The bill caters to banks and other big service providers, but is opposed by most other informed citizens, including the Brazilian Internet managers. The bill has been floored several times in the past few years, but every time was retracted due to fierce opposition. Last time that bill was up for voting there was a wave of hacker attacks to government and politicians' sites a few days before the expected voting date. Those attacks were widely believed to be an attempt by supporters to sway the vote of congressmen in favor of the bill. This attack is more serious but its timing strongly indicates that it has the same motivation.