DDoS attacks on Dyn explained

DDoS attacks on Dyn
Time:11:10 – 13:20 UTC
15:50 – 17:00 UTC
20:00 – 22:10 UTC[1]
Location:Europe and North America, especially the Eastern United States
Type:Distributed denial-of-service
Patrons:-->
Organizers:-->
Participants:Unknown
Suspects:New World Hackers, Anonymous
(self-claimed)
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On October 21, 2016, three consecutive distributed denial-of-service attacks were launched against the Domain Name System (DNS) provider Dyn. The attack caused major Internet platforms and services to be unavailable to large swathes of users in Europe and North America.[2] [3] The groups Anonymous and New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack, but scant evidence was provided.

As a DNS provider, Dyn provides to end-users the service of mapping an Internet domain name—when, for instance, entered into a web browser—to its corresponding IP address. The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack was accomplished through numerous DNS lookup requests from tens of millions of IP addresses. The activities are believed to have been executed through a botnet consisting of many Internet-connected devices—such as printers, IP cameras, residential gateways and baby monitors—that had been infected with the Mirai malware.

Affected services

Services affected by the attack included:

Investigation

The US Department of Homeland Security started an investigation into the attacks, according to a White House source.[27] [28] [29] No group of hackers claimed responsibility during or in the immediate aftermath of the attack.[30] Dyn's chief strategist said in an interview that the assaults on the company's servers were very complex and unlike everyday DDoS attacks.[31] Barbara Simons, a member of the advisory board of the United States Election Assistance Commission, said such attacks could affect electronic voting for overseas military or civilians.

Dyn disclosed that, according to business risk intelligence firm FlashPoint and Akamai Technologies, the attack was a botnet coordinated through numerous Internet of Things-enabled (IoT) devices, including cameras, residential gateways, and baby monitors, that had been infected with Mirai malware. The attribution of the attack to the Mirai botnet had been previously reported by BackConnect Inc., another security firm.[32] Dyn stated that they were receiving malicious requests from tens of millions of IP addresses.[33] [34] Mirai is designed to brute-force the security on an IoT device, allowing it to be controlled remotely.

Cybersecurity investigator Brian Krebs noted that the source code for Mirai had been released onto the Internet in an open-source manner some weeks prior, which made the investigation of the perpetrator more difficult.[35]

On 25 October 2016, US President Obama stated that the investigators still had no idea who carried out the cyberattack.[36]

On 13 December 2017, the Justice Department announced that three men (Paras Jha, 21, Josiah White, 20, and Dalton Norman, 21) had entered guilty pleas in cybercrime cases relating to the Mirai and clickfraud botnets.[37]

Perpetrators

In correspondence with the website Politico, hacktivist groups SpainSquad, Anonymous, and New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack in retaliation against Ecuador's rescinding Internet access to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, at their embassy in London, where he had been granted asylum.[38] This claim has yet to be confirmed.[38] WikiLeaks alluded to the attack on Twitter, tweeting "Mr. Assange is still alive and WikiLeaks is still publishing. We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point."[39] New World Hackers has claimed responsibility in the past for similar attacks targeting sites like BBC and ESPN.com.[40]

On October 26, FlashPoint stated that the attack was most likely done by script kiddies.[41]

A November 17, 2016, a Forbes article reported that the attack was likely carried out by "an angry gamer".[42]

On December 9, 2020, one of the perpetrators pleaded guilty to taking part in the attack. The perpetrator's name was withheld due to his or her age.[43]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Official Dyn Analysis Summary. Dyn. 26 October 2016. dyn.com. 5 February 2019.
  2. Web site: Many sites including Twitter, Shopify and Spotify suffering outage. Etherington. Darrell. Conger. Kate. TechCrunch. 21 October 2016 . 2016-10-21.
  3. News: The Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown. Bloomberg.com. 2016-10-21.
  4. Web site: Heine. Christopher. A Major Cyber Attack Is Hurting Twitter, Spotify, Pinterest, Etsy and Other Sites. AdWeek. 21 October 2016 . 21 October 2016.
  5. News: Lovelace Jr.. Berkeley. After cyberassault KOs Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, third attack reported. 21 October 2016. CNBC. 21 October 2016.
  6. Web site: Chavez. Danette. Here's why half the internet went down today. The A.V. Club. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  7. Web site: Chiel. Ethan. Here Are the Sites You Can't Access Because Someone Took the Internet Down. Fusion. 21 October 2016. 22 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161022023041/http://fusion.net/story/360952/which-sites-affected-ddos-attack/. dead.
  8. Web site: Murdock. Jason. Twitter, Spotify, Reddit among top websites knocked offline by major DDoS attack. International Business Times UK. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  9. News: What's Going On With the Internet Today?. Meyer. Robinson. LaFrance. Adrienne. The Atlantic. en-US. 2016-10-21.
  10. TESOnline. 789545206228156416. 21 October 2016. We are still investigating intermittent login issues some players are experiencing across all megaservers..
  11. Web site: Massive web attacks briefly knock out top sites. BBC News. 21 October 2016.
  12. Web site: Thielman. Sam. Johnston. Chris. Major cyber attack disrupts internet service across Europe and US. The Guardian. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  13. Web site: Hinckley. Story. Did the East Coast just suffer a massive cyberattack?. Christian Science Monitor. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  14. Web site: Hughes. Matthew. A massive DDOS attack against Dyn DNS is causing havoc online [Updated]]. The Next Web. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  15. Web site: Having internet problems today? Here's what's going on. WJHG-TV. 21 October 2016 . 21 October 2016.
  16. Web site: Chacos. Brad. Major DDoS attack on Dyn DNS knocks Spotify, Twitter, Github, PayPal, and more offline. PCWorld. 22 October 2016.
  17. Web site: Menn. Joseph. Cyber attacks disrupt PayPal, Twitter, other sites. Reuters. 23 October 2016. 22 October 2016.
  18. News: This Is Probably Why Half the Internet Shut Down Today [Update: It's Happening Again]]. Turton. William. Gizmodo. en-US. 2016-10-21.
  19. Web site: DDoS Attack on DNS; Major sites including GitHub PSN, Twitter Suffering Outage. HackRead. 23 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  20. Web site: [RESOLVED] Unscheduled Maintenance]. 23 October 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20161024025120/https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Status-Grid/RESOLVED-Unscheduled-Maintenance/ba-p/3075187. 24 October 2016.
  21. Joel Westerholm. "Så sänktes Twitter och Regeringen.se i attacken", Sveriges Radio, 24 October 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  22. Web site: U.S. internet disrupted as firm hit by cyberattacks. CBS News. 21 October 2016 . 21 October 2016.
  23. Web site: Lecher. Colin. Denial-of-service attacks are shutting down major websites across the internet. The Verge. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  24. Web site: Gallagher. Sean. DoS attack on major DNS provider brings Internet to morning crawl [Updated]]. Ars Technica. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  25. Web site: Wolkenbrod. Rob. Why is the WWE Network Down on Friday, October 21?. Daily DDT. 22 October 2016. 21 October 2016. 22 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161022162537/http://dailyddt.com/2016/10/21/wwe-network-down-ddos-attack/. dead.
  26. Web site: Sarkar. Samit. Massive DDoS attack affecting PSN, some Xbox Live apps (update). Polygon. 23 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
  27. Web site: Etherington. Darrell. Conger. Kate. Many sites including Twitter, Shopify and Spotify suffering outage. 2016-10-21. TechCrunch. 21 October 2016 .
  28. News: Government probes major cyberattack causing internet outages. Politico. 2016-10-21.
  29. Homeland Security Is 'Investigating All Potential Causes' of Internet Disruptions. Finkle. Jim. Volz. Dustin. . 2016-10-21.
  30. Web site: Popular sites like Amazon, Twitter and Netflix suffer outages. money.cnn.com. 21 October 2016. CNN Money. October 21, 2016.
  31. News: No, It's Not Just You. The Internet Is (Still) Having Problems.. Perlroth. Nicole. 2016-10-21. Mccann. Erin. The New York Times. 0362-4331. 2016-10-21.
  32. News: Blame the Internet of Things for Destroying the Internet Today. Motherboard. en-us. 2016-10-27.
  33. News: What We Know About Friday's Massive East Coast Internet Outage. Newman. Lily Hay. WIRED. en-US. 2016-10-21.
  34. News: Internet Attack Spreads, Disrupting Major Websites. Perlroth. Nicole. 2016-10-21. The New York Times. 0362-4331. 2016-10-22.
  35. Web site: How an army of vulnerable gadgets took down the web today . Nick . Statt . October 21, 2016 . October 21, 2016 . .
  36. CNN, 25 October 2016, Obama: We have no idea who carried out huge cyberattack
  37. Justice Department, 13 December 2017, Justice Department Announces Charges And Guilty Pleas In Three Computer Crime Cases Involving Significant Cyber Attacks
  38. Web site: Romm . Tony . Geller . Eric . WikiLeaks supporters claim credit for massive U.S. cyberattack, but researchers skeptical . Politico . 21 October 2016 . 22 October 2016.
  39. News: Han . Esther . WikiLeaks claims its supporters are behind the massive DDoS cyber attack . . 22 October 2016 . 22 October 2016.
  40. News: Cyberattacks on Key Internet Firm Disrupt Internet Services. Satter . Raphael . Fowler . Bree . Bajak . 21 October 2016 . The New York Times . 0362-4331 . 22 October 2016 . 2016-10-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161025073904/https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/21/world/europe/ap-disruptive-cyberattack.html.
  41. News: Lomas. Natasha. Dyn DNS DDoS likely the work of script kiddies, says FlashPoint, so i guess that means anonymous did it, as most of anonymous are script kiddies anyway . 26 October 2016 . TechCrunch . 26 October 2016.
  42. Web site: Angry Gamer Blamed For Most Devastating DDoS Of 2016 . Mathews . Lee . 17 November 2016 . Forbes.com . 20 April 2018.
  43. Web site: Individual Pleads Guilty to Participating in Internet-of-Things Cyberattack in 2016 . 9 December 2020 . justice.gov . 7 January 2021.

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