Security News > 2020 > September > Plane-tracking site Flight Radar 24 DDoSed... just as drones spotted buzzing over Azerbaijan and Armenia

Popular plane-tracking website Flight Radar 24 has been the victim of multiple DDoS attacks over the past few days - and though the site's operators haven't attributed blame, some have wondered if a regional conflict may have been the cause.

Attacks on our systems continue and while we were able to bring services back for a short time, significant instability due to the sustained attacks has forced us to refocus our efforts to mitigate them.

Flight Radar spokesman Ian Petchenik told The Register: "At this time we understand this to be a very strong DDoS attack from a single source. While it is not known why we're being targeted, multiple flight tracking services have suffered attacks over the past two days."

Open source researchers claim to have picked up the live flight tracks of drones over Armenia and Azerbaijan, following armed skirmishes between the two nations over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Whatever the cause of the Flight Radar 24 attacks - one knowledgeable source suggested to El Reg that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may have triggered a government determined to control what the wider world can see - they serve as a reminder that even one of the oldest online attack methods can still cause chaos today.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/09/29/flight_radar_24_ddos/