U.S. Now Leads by Number of DDoS Botnet C&C Servers


During the second quarter of 2018, the United States has become the top region by number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) botnet command and control (C&C) servers, accounting for nearly half of them, Kaspersky Lab reports.

Of all known C&C centers worldwide, 44.75% are located in the U.S., up from 29.32% during the first three months of the year. South Korea lost nearly 20 percentage points from the first quarter and ended Q2 on the second position, at 11.05%. Italy (6.83%), China (5.52%), and France (3.31%) round up top 5.

Another significant change observed during this quarter was a massive increase in the number of DDoS attacks from Linux botnets, which reached 94.47% of all single-family attacks, compared to 66.49% in Q1.

The swing is mainly due to a multifold drop in the activity of the Yoyo Windows botnet, paired with a decrease in the activity of Nitol, Drive, and Skill. Simultaneously, “Xor for Linux significantly increased its number of attacks,” Kaspersky reports.

China continues to lead by number of attacks with a 59.03% share, followed by Hong Kong at 17.13%, and the United States at 12.46%. During the quarter, the top 10 countries accounted for 96.44% of the attacks.

According to Kaspersky, which only counted DDoS attacks originating from botnets, China also accounted for the largest share of unique targets (52.36%), followed by the U.S. (17.5%) and Hong Kong (12.88%).

The longest attack observed during the three-month period lasted 258 hours (almost 11 days), being only slightly shorter compared to the longest attack in Q1, which lasted for 297 hours (12.4 days). The number of short attacks (up to 4 hours) dropped significantly in the quarter.

“The share of SYN attacks rose sharply to 80.2%; second place went to UDP attacks with 10.6%,” Kaspersky reveals.

The security firm also noticed that the average and maximum attack power of decreased slightly compared to the second half of last year, but they remained high above the levels observed in the first half of 2017, presumably because of third-party amplification.

Attackers are looking for non-standard amplification methods to increase the power of their attacks, as the recent wave of Memcached-based attacks has proved. Known since 2001, a vulnerability in the Universal Plug and Play protocol has been leveraged for amplification and obfuscation of source ports, thus bypassing existing defenses.

Some of the most significant attacks observed in the quarter include the assault on encrypted email provider ProtonMail and the charge on Mexican elections. Another important event during the timeframe, however, was the shutdown of Webstresser.org, the largest DDoS services marketplace.

Related: New DDoS Attack Method Obfuscates Source Port Data

Related: Multi-Purpose Proxy Botnet Ensnares 65,000 Routers

Copyright 2010 Respective Author at Infosec Island via Infosec Island Latest Articles "https://ift.tt/2A5DQri"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs?
Read more