Security News

The Hoaxcalls Internet of Things botnet has expanded the list of targeted devices and has added new distributed denial of service capabilities to its arsenal, DDoS protection services provider Radware reports. The botnet was designed to launch DDoS attacks using UDP, DNS and HEX floods, based on commands received from its command and control server.

That's according to researchers at Radware, who also said that it's notable how quickly Hoaxcalls operators have moved to weaponize the ZyXel bug, which as of this time of writing, has still not been addressed in a ZyXel advisory. According to the Palo Alto Unit 42 researchers who found it, the original sample featured three DDoS attack vectors: UDP, DNS and HEX floods; and, it was seen infecting devices through two vulnerabilities: A DrayTek Vigor2960 remote code-execution vulnerability and a GrandStream Unified Communications remote SQL injection bug.

There has been an increasing number of high-volume attacks in Q1 2020, with 51 attacks over 50 Gbps. The average bandwidth of attacks also rose, reaching 5,0 Gbps versus 4,3 Gbps in the same quarter in 2019. Key findings Maximum bandwidth nearly doubles: In Q1 2020, the maximum bandwidth nearly doubled in comparison to the previous year; the biggest attack stopped was 406 Gbps. In Q1 2019 the maximum bandwidth peaked at 224 Gbps. Complex multi-vector attacks rising: The share of multi-vector attacks rose to 64% in Q1 2020 up from 47% in Q1 2019.

New research from Atlas VPN has shown that the United States experienced more than 175,000 DDoS attacks in the month of March, more than double the number faced by the next highest country and four times as many as China. According to data gathered and analyzed by Atlas VPN researchers, South Korea and Brazil both suffered from more than 50,000 DDoS attacks while China came in just ahead of the United Kingdom with about 45,000 attacks.

Dutch police on Friday arrested a 19-year-old man from Breda suspected of launching a distributed denial of service attack on a government website. Given the current coronavirus crisis, when emergency ordinances and regulations are made accessible through this site, the Dutch police notes, keeping it accessible is vital.

There has been a 168% increase in DDoS attacks in Q4 2019, compared with Q4 2018, and a 180% increase overall in 2019 vs. 2018, according to Neustar. The company saw DDoS attacks across all size categories increase in 2019, with attacks sized 5 Gbps and below seeing the largest growth.

Multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in digital video recorders for surveillance systems manufactured by Taiwan-based LILIN have been exploited by botnet operators to infect and co-opt vulnerable devices into a family of denial-of-service bots. The findings come from Chinese security firm Qihoo 360's Netlab team, who say different attack groups have been using LILIN DVR zero-day vulnerabilities to spread Chalubo, FBot, and Moobot botnets at least since August 30, 2019.

Multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in digital video recorders for surveillance systems manufactured by Taiwan-based LILIN have been exploited by botnet operators to infect and co-opt vulnerable devices into a family of denial-of-service bots. The findings come from Chinese security firm Qihoo 360's Netlab team, who say different attack groups have been using LILIN DVR zero-day vulnerabilities to spread Chalubo, FBot, and Moobot botnets at least since August 30, 2019.

DDoS attacks come in different sizes and types and it's not been revealed which methods were used beyond the fact the attacks lasted for hours. These days, DDoS attacks are not the potent weapon they once were, primarily because large websites are protected by a newer generation of defences trained on a number of large attacks, hijacking a widening range of protocols.

In an impeccable instance of horrible timing, the US government's Department of Health and Human Services says it fended off a cyberattack by online scumbags. The attack - presumably not a load of citizens hitting Uncle Sam's web servers looking for information - did not, we're told, have had any serious impact on operations, but with American's desperate for information about the coronavirus pandemic, the attempted takedown came at the worst possible time.