If you are a regular reader of ours, you have probably heard of Distributed Denial of Service attacks , or DDoS for short. A DDoS attack causes malfunctions or even downtime on a website by sending a sudden wave of traffic against it. This event overwhelms the site's servers. However, a DDoS attack may not stop there.
In February 2013, cybercriminals used a DDoS attack to cover up a $900,000 bank robbery. Similar attacks against other banks and gambling websites have netted criminals millions.
A DDoS attack is so simple that almost anyone can carry it out and it is so effective that people without special knowledge may think that the “hackers” were truly skilled.
A recent study claims that the rate of attacks on businesses has increased dramatically, “These attacks are costing companies an estimated $50,000 to $100,000 per hour.” A 24-hour outage can cost millions of dollars so it’s no surprise that large businesses are using DDoS protection services. CloudFlare is a billion-dollar company today, thanks to its ability to protect websites.
All these dollars reveal the amount of money circulating in the market for cyber defense.
Dirt Jumper is the popular Russian DIY DDoS kit that has been linked to numerous multi-million dollar attacks on banks. It is a simple tool that allows hackers to carry out effective DDoS attacks for as little as $150. The tool requires no experience or specialized knowledge and makes the impossible possible for unskilled attackers, reports the Daily Dot.
This summer, security researchers at Arbor Networks spotted a new weapon on the market called Dirt Jumper Drive. The Drive is a clever technology that can detect, outsmart, and bypass DDoS defenses that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.
Attackers program their bots “.. to detect, trick anti-DDoS cookies, with redirection methods, and with meta tags used to redirect to the malicious IP,” Phil Annibale reports at Cyveillance.
The most intelligent botnets avoid detection and thus success rates are very high.
“Drive was certainly very ambitious in its goals,” says Jason Jones of Arbor Networks, “ hackers have used the tool on targets such as commercial websites, search engines, a popular security news site, and some foreign financial institutions” with a fairly good success rate, Jones continues.
According to a recent report, there have been 33% more DDoS attacks this year than in 2012 – and we’re now talking about more powerful and sophisticated attacks.
In this battle, the advantage is with the attacker.
