DDoS

Hacktivist-led DDoS is now the most common type, study finds

February 08, 2012

DDoS attackers motivated by social or political purposes are more common than conventional criminals out for financial gain, concluded a new report from Arbor Networks.
 

Anonymous leaks cybercrime investigator's private emails

November 21, 2011

The hack was carried out as part of Operation AntiSec, as revenge for police crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street movement.
 

Anonymous vows revenge over Occupy Toronto threats

November 14, 2011

The city of Toronto has become a target of the Anonymous hacktivist group after officials announced plans to clear a park of Occupy protesters.
 

Anonymous downs Oakland police site after violence

October 27, 2011

The hacktivist group Anonymous is making good on its promise of digital retaliation against the Oakland Police Department for its use of tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades on anti-greed protesters earlier this week.
 

New Mac OS X backdoor trojan "Tsunami" discovered

October 26, 2011

The so-called "Tsunami" backdoor trojan is derived from an older Linux family of backdoors around since at least 2002.
 

U.S. may have had inside knowledge of Libya radar bugs

October 18, 2011

News that the U.S. was considering a cyberattack to disable Libya's radar system may indicate knowledge of the same flaws Israel is believed to have used against Syria in 2007.
 

Anonymous: We won't hack Wall Street

October 05, 2011

The online collective Anonymous is disputing a YouTube video posted over the weekend that promises distributed denial-of-service attacks on Monday against the New York Stock Exchange. In a tweet from the AnonOps Twitter account, considered one of the most trusted sources of information from the group, there are no plans to hack Wall Street properties. Because Anonymous is technically a leaderless organization, it is sometimes difficult to tell if information is accurate. The FBI declined comment on the matter, when reached by SCMagazineUS.com. Anonymous has been instrumental in recent weeks in facilitating the Occupy Wall Street ground protests, which have now spread beyond New York to a number of other cities.
 

Can we stop hacktivism?

Matthew Pascucci, information security analyst, financial services firm October 04, 2011

The answer is "no," but that doesn't mean security professionals are hopeless in defending their networks against politically minded intruders. Not to mention, you have more in common with them than you might think.
 

Alleged 'Anonymous 14' plead innocent to PayPal DDoS

September 02, 2011

Fourteen individuals believed to be part of the hacktivist group Anonymous plead not guilty in federal court in San Jose, Calif on Thursday to charges of participating in an attack against PayPal.
 

LulzSec spokesman Topiary arrested in Scotland

July 27, 2011

The days of LulzSec could be numbered, as a key member of the small hacktivist group has been arrested, authorities in the U.K. said Wednesday.
 

FBI charges Anonymous members with PayPal DDoS

July 19, 2011

The FBI has rounded up more than a dozen Anonymous members who demonstrated their support for WikiLeaks last December by launching DDoS attacks against PayPal's website.
 

DDoS attacks rise in number, thanks to free tools

July 14, 2011

The Internet Crime Complaint Center on Thursday warned of a growing number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, many of which have been motivated by reasons not related to financial gain.
 

Babushka* dollars

David Harley, ESET senior research fellow May 19, 2011

It's not surprising, given how much cybercrime originates in Eastern Europe, that some of the best counter-threat research also comes out of the region.
 

Man sentenced for using botnet against media sites

April 20, 2011

A Kansas City man has been sentenced to two years in prison after he was found guilty in September of creating a virus and amassing a 100,000-node botnet to launch DDoS attacks against a number of websites, including Rolling Stone and Radar. Bruce Raisley, 48, launched the attacks against sites that published articles detailing an incident in which he agreed to leave his wife for a "woman" whom he met on the internet, according to prosecutors. As it turned out, his newfound lover actually was Xavier Von Erck, head of Perverted Justice, an anti-pedophile vigilante group, who hatched the cruel joke to avenge for Raisley publicly slamming and threatening the organization after he stopped volunteering there. Raisley, who was sentenced last week, also must pay more than $90,000 in fines and serve three years of supervised release following his term.
 

WordPress sustains massive DDoS attack

March 03, 2011

Popular blogging platform WordPress was subjected Thursday to a vicious distributed denial-of-service attack that, for now at least, has been abated.
 

Anonymous defaces Westboro site during live interview

February 24, 2011

Despite its original intentions, Anonymous has defaced the website of the hate-spewing Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.
 

Anonymous says no plans, now, to attack Westboro

February 22, 2011

The hacking collective known as Anonymous apparently does not plan to next target the hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church.
 

Cyberwar PsyOps: #Tunisia, #Egypt: Regimes Deposed by Twitter?

Charles Jeter, ESET cybercrime investigator February 11, 2011

What role did private corporations and social media play in the regime change in Egypt and Tunisia?
 

Anonymous takes over security firm in vengeful hack

February 07, 2011

HBGary has "completely unplugged from the internet" as the security firm moves into investigatory and damage control mode following the infiltration of its network by the hacker group Anonymous.
 

The evolution of the DDoS

February 01, 2011

The temporary takedown in December of a handful of websites that cut ties with controversial website WikiLeaks, including Visa and MasterCard, made national news.
 

Cyberwar PsyOps Analysis: Egypt 2011

Charles Jeter, ESET cybercrime investigator January 28, 2011

#OpEgypt and #Jan25 lead in this cyberwarfare analysis on psychological operations using social media. The old-school mobile phone is now the instrument of real-time sitreps. Will cellular network technology be the next risk for state-sanctioned cyberwarfare? Part three of a series.
 

Five charged with "Anonymous"-led DDoS attacks

January 27, 2011

More members of the Anonymous gang have been charged for their role in DDoS attacks against anti-WikiLeaks websites.
 

Cyberwarfare Roshambo: th3j35t3r Profiled

Charles Jeter, ESET cybercrime investigator January 12, 2011

One great cyberwar campfire story for CIOs to share about DDoS toolkit compromises.
 

Hired guns: Cyberwar PsyOps, Part 2

Charles Jeter, ESET cybercrime investigator January 11, 2011

Which social media participants and private companies will become collateral damage in the ongoing Tunisian cyberwar?
 

Hired guns: Cyberwar PsyOps, Part 1

Charles Jeter, Cybercrime investigator January 11, 2011

What is the balance of privacy and free speech in a globalized information society? Will Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries with restrictive policies be next in line for cyber attacks attributed to Operation Payback?
 

Vigilante meetup site 4chan falls to DDoS attack

December 29, 2010

Image-based bulletin board 4chan, reportedly used as a forum by the hacker group Anonymous, succumbed Tuesday to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, according to the site's founder, Chris Poole.
 

WikiLeaks attacks fail to meet definition of cyberwar

December 14, 2010

Though some have labeled the website attacks surrounding the WikiLeaks controversy to be the first-ever global cyberwar, security experts say the truth is much less sensational.
 

Pro-WikiLeaks hackers target MasterCard, PayPal

December 08, 2010

A united band of WikiLeaks supporters, some with little technical knowledge, are using free tools to launch DDoS attacks against opposition website targets.
 

WikiLeaks absorbs more DDoS attacks

November 30, 2010

Wikileaks appears to have recovered from another punishing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack unleashed against the whistleblower website.
 

Political hacker takes credit for Wikileaks DDoS attack

November 29, 2010

A political hacker has claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) that took down Wikileaks.org just before a planned release of confidential documents.