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Hackers Leverage Cloud Computing to Crack Passwords Efficiently
Nov 20, 2010
On-demand cloud computing is a valuable tool for companies needing temporary computing capacity without long-term investment in fixed capital. However, this same convenience makes cloud computing useful to hackers. Many hacking activities involve cracking passwords , keys, or other forms of brute force attacks. These processes are computationally intensive but highly parallelizable. Hackers have two main sources for on-demand computing: botnets made of consumer PCs and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) from service providers. Both can deliver computing power on demand for brute force attacks. Botnets are unreliable and heterogeneous, taking longer to "provision." However, they are free to use and can scale to enormous sizes, with some botnets comprising hundreds of thousands of PCs. On the other hand, commercial cloud computing offers faster provisioning, predictable performance, and can be billed to a stolen credit card . The balance of power between security controls ...
