Security News > 2020 > March > HHS Says DDoS Attack Failed to Cause Disruption
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was targeted with a distributed denial-of-service attack on Sunday, but the agency said it did not experience any significant disruption as a result of the incident.
"Incident response takes time, and as this just occurred last night, more time for investigations will be required. Based on reporting, this appears to be some sort of denial of service attack and the barrier to entry for DOS attacks are low."
"DDoS attacks are not sophisticated, but the timing of the attack and potential motive raises significant concern," Stephen Boyce, principal consultant at the Crypsis Group, said via email.
"The goal of these attacks is to prevent legitimate users from accessing HHS websites and systems. These attacks could also be a precursor for a larger attack that may result in data access and or exfiltration."
"The most prominent targets of such attacks are institutions that are providing information to the public regarding COVID-19. These institutions include: local, state, federal, and tribal government agencies, media outlets, pharmaceuticals companies, and healthcare industries. We should expect more DDoS attacks on the institutions mentioned above and an increase in spear-phishing attacks as well," Boyce added.
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