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Dyn DNS DDoS Likely The Work of Script Kiddies, Says FlashPoint (techcrunch.com)
While nobody knows exactly who was responsible for the internet outrage last Friday, business risk intelligence firm FlashPoint released a preliminary analysis of the attack agains Dyn DNS, and found that it was likely the work of "script kiddies" or amateur hackers -- as opposed to state-sponsored actors. TechCrunch reports: Aside from suspicion falling on Russia, various entities have also claimed or implied responsibility for the attack, including a hacking group called the New World Hackers and -- bizarrely -- WikiLeaks, which put a (perhaps joke) tweet suggesting some of its supporters might be involved. FlashPoint dubs these claims "dubious" and "likely to be false," and instead comes down on the side of the script kidding theory. Its reasoning is based on a few factors, including a detail it unearthed during its investigation of the attack: namely that the infrastructure used in the attack also targeted a well-known video game company. The attack on Dyn DNS was powered in part by a botnet of hacked DVRs and webcams known as Mirai. The source code for the malware that controls this botnet was put on Github earlier this month. And FlashPoint also notes that the hacker who released Mirai is known to frequent a hacking forum called hackforums[.]net. That circumstantial evidence points to a link between the attack and users and readers of the English-language hacking community, with FlashPoint also noting the forum has been known to target video games companies. It says it has "moderate confidence" about this theory. The firm also argues that the attacks do not seem to have been financially or politically motivated -- given the broad scope of the targets, and the lack of any attempts to extort money. Which just leaves the most likely being motivation to show off skills and disrupt stuff. Aka, script kiddies.
"script kiddies" is what we call the NSA these days, I guess.
If script kiddies can bring down top tier names on the web, imagine what state actors could do.
I still don't understand why we don't simply execute script kiddies. We slap them on the wrist, then allow them to continue being troublemakers. The single best way to stop script kiddies and their DDOS attacks is by removing the script kiddies from the population. We stop murder by executing murderers and removing then from the population. That would undoubtedly be very effective against script kiddies, too.
If it's true that "script kiddies" took out 1/2 the US internet, trillions of dollars in transactions hang on a perilously delicate thread.
If security of IoT is that poor, companies that produce them need to be held legally and financially responsible for any loss.
Can do that sort of damage, and have a control over that large of bot net that can produce that much traffic... WTF would happen if real players wanted to take it down...
So everyone that isn't a state sponsored hacker is a script kiddie now? When did script kiddie evolve from hacking using tools someone else created that you lack any real understanding of to being everyone not on the payroll of russia, china, or the us?
Of course it was script kiddies. Why in the world would any state-sponsored group show their hand and blow a single-use resource (the IoT botnet) to accomplish... absolutely nothing at all. Taking down some of the internet for part of a day at a totally non-strategic point in time, with totally non-strategic targets, isn't something any state would do randomly just for fun. This attack was large enough that it triggered many actions to prevent it from happening again. You have Chinese IoT chipset manufacturers doing recalls and patching their code. Pressure is being put on ISPs to help filter these kinds of attacks (it is quite obvious when some large percentage of your customers start engaging in some very abnormal network behavior all at the exact same time). Online providers like Dyn are learning and coming up with ways to prevent future attacks on their end. The only thing the attack accomplished was awareness. No state sponsored organization would have wasted their offensive attack resources like this.
Better known as 318230.
Now then, boyo. A town in Wales it sounds like, lookyou.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
How soon will there be an IoT toilet seat botnet?
The popularity and security weaknesses in IoT devices has lower the bar so that anyone with a bit of IT knowledge can take out large companies. We should take a step back from the IoT buzzword and remember that consumer side devices has been online for a long time. Other consumer equipment, such as routers and web cams, have long been a source an area with weak security and hardcoded passwords. The problem is that these devices are out there and there is no way of fixing them all.
Unless better attack mitigation approaches are put in place, on the broader Internet infrastructure and not just the attach victims, these sorts of attacks will only become more common. Unfortunately, there seems to be little willingness to do this. It is true that this isn't an easy fix and changes will cause their own problems but the consequences of doing nothing could be much worse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MafiaBoy
Calce claimed that the attacks had been launched unwittingly, after inputting known addresses in a security tool he had downloaded from a repository on the now defunct file-sharing platform
Yea of course they used scripts, imagine having to manually start a DDoS attacks from every bot in the net!
> If security of IoT is that poor.
It is. Millions of devices just sitting out there with username "admin", password "admin". My 9-5 job is checking the security of companies that should have reasonable security - banks, large retailers, etc. They very often don't change default passwords, so why would you expect typical home users to?
> If ... trillions of dollars in transactions hang on a perilously delicate thread.
Yep. Just looking at the Slashdot headlines alone you'll see billions of dollars of losses/damage every year.
> If it's true that "script kiddies" ...
Another commenter pointed out some reasons it's unlikely to be a professional organization responsible in this case:
https://news.slashot.org/comme...
... to shoot you in the face with it.
The issue is not whether they're script kiddies or not but that the code worked. And it shouldn't. But it does. Correct the situation.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
These products were thrown out to the public with little to no thought about security. The entire board of directors (or whatever idiots running the company making a profit from sales) should have all their legs broken for this. Nothing more, just some extreme, non-life threatening pain. Maybe they will think twice about not giving a crap about what they are letting out on the world.
I say again - IoT is a stupid idea.
Civilized people are enslaved by those who don't have such scruples.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
man, it's ridiculous how far people will go to smear an organisation eh
From every other breach and incident we've seen, the government has screamed "Russians!!" with absolutely not proof.... Why not this time?
Hillary ain't the president-elect yet.
...then all you "professionals" working in IT security should resign and go work as Walmart greeters. Seriously, if some 13 year old kid living in there parents basement can take down a bunch of major websites on the East Coast, the "pros" needed to be given their pink slips. Who is running this show, the Yahoo email security group? Fix your sh*t or resign.
"The little daughter's on the mattress,/Dead. How many have been on it/A platoon, a company perhaps?"
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Prussian Nights
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.