A new report from Kaspersky Lab warns of a growing number of botnet DDoS attacks. The analysis shows that gamers and cryptocurrency platforms are increasingly becoming victims.
The DDoS Intelligence Report for the second quarter of 2018 showed that Hong Kong was for the first time among the top three countries with the highest rates of DDoS attacks, and took second place there. Most often, hackers in Hong Kong target cloud mining services. China and the United States are in first and third place, respectively, while Korea has dropped to fourth place in this ranking.
According to the report, the number of Windows DDoS botnets has fallen by almost seven times, while the number of Linux-based botnets has grown by 25%. Linux bots accounted for 95% of all DDoS attacks in the second quarter. Hackers exploit protocol flaws, such as the vulnerability of the Plug-and-Play and CHARGEN protocols, which became known many years ago.
Cybercriminals are still creating new botnets. For example, in Japan, 50,000 surveillance cameras were used to launch a DDoS attack in the second quarter of this year.
When it comes to monetizing these attacks, one of the best methods is to target cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges. In the second quarter, the Verge cryptocurrency suffered an attack that lasted several hours and resulted in hackers managing to steal $35 million in XVG tokens. The same tactics were used in an attack on XVG a month earlier, when the company lost 250,000 XVG.
Attackers continue to target gaming platforms, especially during eSports tournaments.
“DDoS attacks can have different motives - political or social protest, personal hatred, competition,” said Alexey Kiselev, Kaspersky project manager DDoS Protection. "In most cases, hackers get paid for it. This is why attacks on cryptocurrency platforms are so popular - people make good money with them. A DDoS attack can be a distraction for a real robbery, or it can be carried out for the purpose of obtaining a ransom. The amount of money received from such an attack can range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars. So we believe that protection against DDoS attacks can be a good investment."
According to pymnts.com
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