Anti-Government DDoS Attacks Booming As Costs Drop And Effectiveness Rises

DDoS Attacks Against Governments More Powerful And Popular Than Ever

 

 

 

” When the protesters hit the streets, expect DDoS attacks to hit the Web. 

  Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are being used against government targets more than ever before, according to new research from Internet infrastructure firm Verisign. The attacks are increasingly powerful, cheap, and easy to deploy.

  DDoS attacks work by flooding a target—a bank, for instance, or a popular website—with data in order to make it crash or unusable for users. It’s not only an easy-to-use, cheap, and effective weapon for hackers, it’s also a goldmine for security firms paid to defend against the attacks.

  DDoS attacks against public-sector targets grew to account for 15 percent of all attacks recorded by the company at the end of 2014. The average size of attacks grew in size by 245 percent, Verisign found.

  DDoS-for-hire services can cost as little as $2 per hour, delivering an easy-to-use but potentially powerful punch to any Internet-connected devices on earth. 

  The DDoS defense market—where Verisign is a major player—is projected to hit $1.6 billion within two years.”

 

Daily Dot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hackers Slip Through A Microsoft “Watering Hole”

Attackers Use Microsoft Security Hole Against Energy, Defense, Finance Targets

 

 

 

” By the time Microsoft warned customers of a nasty security hole in its web browser Saturday, a sophisticated group of attackers were already using the vulnerability against defense and energy companies, according to FireEye, the security company.

  Things went from bad to worse over the weekend. FireEye’s researchers watched as the attackers shared their exploit with a separate attack group, which began using the vulnerability to target companies in the financial services industry, according to Darien Kindlund, the director of threat intelligence at FireEye.

  Even after Microsoft issued its advisory on Saturday, Mr. Kindlund said, “There was a notable increase in proliferation.”

  Soon, the attackers were using the vulnerability for so-called watering hole attacks, in which hackers infect a popular website with malware, then wait for victims to click to the site and infect their computers.”

 

Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lavabit/Silence Circle Alliance Shoots For Surveillance-Proof Email

Lavabit To Release Code As Open Source, As It Creates Dark Mail Alliance To Create Even More Secure Email

 

 

” This whole morning, while all these stories of the NSA hacking directly into Google and Yahoo’s network have been popping up, I’ve been at the Inbox Love conference, all about the future of email. The “keynote” that just concluded, was Ladar Levison from Lavabit (with an assist from Mike Janke from Silent Circle), talking about the just announced Dark Mail Alliance, between Lavabit and Silent Circle — the other “security” focused communications company who shut down its email offering after Lavabit was forced to shut down. Levison joked that they went with “Dark Mail” because “Black Mail” might have negative connotations. Perhaps just as interesting, Levison is going to be releasing the Lavabit source code (and doing a Kickstarter project to support this), with the hope that many others can set up their own secure email using Lavabit’s code, combined with the new Dark Mail Alliance secure technology which will be available next year. 

As noted, the Alliance is working on trying to create truly secure and surveillance-proof email. Of course, nothing is ever 100% surveillance proof — and both members of the alliance have previously claimed that it was almost impossible to do surveillance-proof email. However, they’re claiming they’ve had a “breakthrough” that will help.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Firefox Plug-In Warns Users Of NSA Surveillance

“The Dark Side of the Prism” 

 

 

” Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day? The government is likely logging even the most mundane day-to-day computer habits of millions of Americans, but there’s a way to stand up against surveillance while also rocking out.

Justin Blinder released a plugin for the Web browser Firefox this week, and he’s already seeing a positive response in the press if not just based off of the idea alone. His “The Dark Side of the Prism” browser extension alerts Web surfers of possible surveillance by starting up a different song from Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic “The Dark Side of the Moon” each time a questionable site is crossed. 

Blinder told the Guardian that he built the program over the course of four hours with the hopes he could “create some sort of ambient notification that you are on a site that is being surveiled by the NSA.” “

 

 

 

 

 

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