DDoS Attacks | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Anonymous, a loosely affiliated group of Internet vigilantes, has claimed responsibility for various Internet attacks against organizations perceived as hostile to WikiLeaks. Today, the group sought to portray itself as more focused on symbolic protest rather than outright disruption. These claims come amid reports that the online payment site Moneybookers was taken offline by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by Anonymous members. In a statement released today, Anonymous organizers contended that they are not a group of hackers but a "gathering" of average Internet citizens. "We do not want to steal your personal information or credit card numbers. We also do not seek to attack critical infrastructure of companies such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, or Amazon," the statement read. Instead, the focus has been on attacking corporate websites or the online "public face" of companies seen as anti-WikiLeaks. The group described these acti

"Operation Payback" is evolving, as attackers have initiated a fax-based campaign against companies that severed ties with WikiLeaks. Hacktivists from the group "Anonymous" are urging members to send faxes to Amazon, MasterCard, PayPal, Visa, Tableau Software, and Moneybookers. This action aims to create a fax-based version of denial-of-service attacks, according to Netcraft. Over the past few days, the group has launched distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against websites of several companies and organizations, including MasterCard and Visa. Paul Mutton from Netcraft blogged, "This latest campaign by the Anonymous group is analogous to the distributed denial of service attacks it has been carrying out against websites over the past week. In essence, this has turned into a DDoS attack against fax machines. The group started the fax-attacks on Dec. 13 at 13:00 GMT and published a list of target fax numbers in their call to arms." "The Anon

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

A Dutch hacker collective called Revspace aims to "re-educate" Dutch teens suspected of cyberattacks against Mastercard, Visa, and the Dutch National Prosecutors Office, transforming them into "ethical hackers." Last week, Dutch police arrested a 16-year-old boy for participating in web attacks against MasterCard and Visa as part of a grassroots effort to support WikiLeaks. On Saturday, another teenager was arrested in Hoogezand-Sappemeer for admitting to flooding the website of the Dutch prosecutor. The 19-year-old, known online as Awinee, reportedly encouraged others to join the attack. The teen was released today. Martijn Gonlag, who admitted to using the tool, claimed he only wanted to test software and did not support Wikileaks. Both arrests were straightforward because the teenagers used LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon), a tool that lacks security features like anonymization. The attackers' IP addresses were visible in all packets sent during the attacks, as

Dutch authorities announced the arrest of a 16-year-old hacker involved in the pro-WikiLeaks attacks on the websites of MasterCard and PayPal. The Dutch National Prosecutors Office reported that the teen, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested by a high-tech crime team last night. The arrest follows a series of attacks organized by the group known as Anonymous. This group has previously targeted entities such as the Church of Scientology and the Australian government. Recently, they launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on companies distancing themselves from WikiLeaks. These attacks use thousands of computers to overwhelm a target by making simultaneous connections. Yesterday, Visa.com was briefly taken offline, though the company assured CNET that no payments or transactions were affected. MasterCard.com was also unreachable in the morning. Additionally, the website for the Swedish prosecution agency, which is seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks editor Julian A

WikiLeaks' main website became inaccessible on Friday via its WikiLeaks.org domain after EveryDNS.net, a subsidiary of Dynamic Network Services, terminated its domain name service. EveryDNS.net terminated the WikiLeaks.org domain due to repeated Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks. These attacks threatened the stability of EveryDNS.net's infrastructure, which supports nearly 500,000 other websites. This information was stated on EveryDNS.net's website. EveryDNS.net notified WikiLeaks via email, Twitter, and the chat function on the WikiLeaks.org website that its domain name service would be terminated within 24 hours. This period ended on Dec. 2 at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. EveryDNS.net remarked, "Any downtime of the Wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider." In response, WikiLeaks tweeted, "WikiLeaks.org domain killed by U.S. EveryDNS.net after claimed mass attacks," urging su

WikiLeaks faced another distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday morning, as reported by Fast Company. This attack was more intense than the one on Sunday, but it still didn't come close to shutting down the site. A computer hacker known as "The Jester" shocked officials by claiming responsibility for the cyber attack that disabled the WikiLeaks website on Sunday morning. This incident occurred just before WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. embassy cables to the public. The Jester, an ex-soldier, justified his hacking by accusing the website of "attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, 'other assets,' and foreign relations." The self-proclaimed "hacktivist for good" turned to the web to combat terrorism and organizations that seem to support Islamic extremism after his military service. Cybersecurity expert Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure told CNN he believed The Jester was indeed behind the attack. WikiLeaks