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Massive DDOS Attacks Are Now Targeting Google, Amazon, and the NRA (pcmag.com)

PC Magazine reports: A new way to amplify DDoS attacks has been spotted harassing Google, Amazon, Pornhub and even the National Rifle Association's main website after striking Github last week. The attacks, which exploit vulnerable "memcached servers," have been trying to hose down scores of new targets with a flood of internet traffic, according to Chinese security firm Qihoo 360... Github was the first high-profile victim and suffered a 1.35 Tbps assault -- or what was then the biggest DDoS attack on record. But days later, an unnamed U.S. service provider fended off a separate assault, which measured at 1.7 Tbps. Unfortunately, the amplified DDoS attacks haven't stopped. They've gone on to strike over 7,000 unique IP addresses in the last seven days, Qihoo 360 said in a blog post... Gaming sites including Rockstargames.com, Minecraft.net, and Playstation.net have been among those hit...

The security community is also steadily addressing the linchpin to all the assaults: the vulnerable memcached servers. About 100,000 of these online storage systems were publicly exposed over a week ago. But the server owners have since patched or firewalled about 60,000 of them, Radware security researcher Daniel Smith said. That leaves 40,000 servers open to exploitation. Smith points to how the coding behind the attack technique has started to circulate online through free tools and scripts.

Meanwhile, Slashdot reader darthcamaro shares an article about "the so-call 'kill switch'" that some vendors have been debating: "The 'kill switch' was immediately obvious to everyone who worked on mitigating this DDoS attack," John Graham-Cumming, CTO of CloudFlare said. "We chose not to use or test this method because it would be unethical and likely illegal since it alters the state of a remote machine without authorization."

3 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Google, Amazon, and the NRA by Noishkel · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I really think you're overvaluing Google and Amazon. Plus the NRA has been kind of cucked for years, but at least they provide an easy target for idiotic leftist that don't realize other well funded gun rights groups with teams of lawyers do the real legwork of fighting for gun rights in the courts in the courts.

  2. Re: NRA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The NRA was in the news? No I think you mean entertainment media companies in collusion with left wing political groups have discussed the NRA and accused them on television and the internet. That is not the same thing as news journalism doing real investigations and reporting on the facts.

    Get some sense.

  3. Re: ALL by baker_tony · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Ahh, yes, of course, it's the MEDIA'S fault for mass shootings in America, not the proliferation of guns!
    That explains why every other country in the world is different, they don't have media companies that glorify violence.
    Oh wait, that's actually a bunch of bullshit.