Internet of things: Cyber-attacks cripple systems across US, Europe

Attack could also have been meant as a message from a foreign power, analysts say

SAN FRANCISCO: Cyber-attacks pounded the underpinnings of the internet, crippling Twitter, Netflix and other major websites with the help of once-dumb devices made smart with online connections.

Waves of attacks incapacitated a crucial piece of internet infrastructure, hampering or outright blocking access to popular online venues.

“When I see something like this, I have to think state actor,” said Carbon Black national security strategist Eric O’Neill, a former ‘spy hunter’ on the FBI counter-intelligence force.

“This is not some hacker sitting in his basement, typing away on a keyboard.”

The attack was said to put a troubling new spin on an old hacker attack, known as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), where millions of devices in the fast-growing internet of things (IoT) took part in the cyber onslaught.

Armies of computers - infected with malicious code - are typically used in DDoS attacks intended to overwhelm targets with simultaneous online requests.

Hacker software referred to as ‘Mirai’ that takes control of IoT devices was evidently linked to the attack, with the broad range of devices making requests helping get past Dyn defences.

Heavyweight cyber-attacks that seem to yield trouble but no apparent payoff could be probing defences to refine tactics for use on high-value targets such as utilities or transportation systems, according to O’Neill and other computer defence specialists.

The attack could also have been meant as a message from a foreign power, cyber security analysts said.

The onslaught commanded the attention of top US security agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security. “DHS and the FBI are aware and are investigating all potential causes” of the outages, a spokeswoman said.

The initial attack was resolved within about two hours but the company, known as Dyn, was slammed with a second DDoS wave.

A map published by the website downdetector.com showed the effect was felt across the US and into Europe.

Amazon Web Services, which hosts some of the most popular sites on the internet, including Netflix and the homestay network Airbnb, said that it also staved off one attack, only to be hit with similar problems several hours later.

According to Verisign, the number of DDoS attacks rose 75% year-on-year (YoY) in the second quarter of this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2016.

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