News

Arrest made in largest-ever DDoS attack

A win for website security professionals reflects the swift, cooperative response to large-scale cyberattacks. On Friday, according to The Register's Iain Thomson, Dutch police confirmed that a suspect, a 35-year old Dutchman who is being referred to as 'SK' by authorities, was arrested by Spanish police in Barcelona on a Dutch warrant. He is being extradited to the Netherlands, charged with conducting a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the non-profit anti-spam organization Spamhaus.

Tech journalist Brian Krebs wrote that many called the March campaign "the largest publicly announced online attack in the history of the Internet." The threat dwarfed previous DDoS attacks with a series of requests flooding into Spamhaus servers, peaking at 300 gigabits per second (Gbps) and disrupting international network functionality.

Thomson reported that many believe the suspect is Sven Kamphuis, the owner of Dutch hosting firm Cyberbunker, which landed on Spamhaus' spammers blacklist and led to a longstanding feud between the two firms.

The New York Times' John Markoff and Nicole Perlroth revealed that Kamphuis was unhappy with Spamhaus back in March. "Mr Kamphuis said Cyberbunker was retaliating against Spamhaus for 'abusing their influence,'" they reported.

Computer security in the event of a DDoS attack
As many complex cyberattacks have shown, security systems are often initially unable to cope with the scale and intensity of attacks. Mashable posted a conceptual video of what a DDoS attack looks like. The video gives the viewer an idea of the sheer force that the requests of a compromised security system unleash on the server.

While a DDoS attack can wreak havoc on a network, there are some preventative steps and quick responses one can take to mitigate the damage. Dave Piscitello, on behalf of the ICANN Security Team, offered some counsel on dealing with a DDoS attack.

"Any Internet service - web, DNS, Internet voice, mail - can be the target of a DDoS attack," wrote Piscitello.

The first steps, he wrote, are to contact the hosting and service providers. Generally, they are able to access a chain of communication that can alleviate some of the infiltration and see what protective methods remain available. Victims of cyberattacks providing "good intel" to authorities is also essential. Piscitello warned that companies shouldn't wait until they become victims to address protection from DDoS attacks.

Web security breaches emphasize the importance of safeguarding your information. Protect your data in transit with an SSL certificate today.

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