Hackers drill into internet's core
Hackers stepped up their attacks on the internet on Wednesday, targeting some of the main computers responsible for directing online traffic.
The internet suffered a potentially debilitating attacks on three of its 13 DNS (domain name system) servers. These are operated by internet body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the US Defense Department, and domain manager UltraDNS. The attack was achieved by inundating them with large volumes of traffic which crippled the three servers.
Computer experts quietly dealt with the attacks, which lasted several hours.
However the assault went largely unnoticed by the majority of internet users, because the remaining 10 servers were unaffected.
DNS servers are responsible for routing traffic to assigned numeric IP addresses through the text-based addresses internet users type into their browsers. These particular DNS servers attacked on Wednesday, however, are at the top of the internet hierarchy. The mapping of text links to IP addresses is usually conducted further down the chain, at ISP level.
Conor Flynn, technical director at e-security firm Rits, said that it would have taken a lot of malicious traffic to cause problems for the top servers in question, as they are specifically designed to process high volumes of internet content.
The fact that the assault caused little difficulty for ordinary internet users does not mean that security experts are brushing the latest breach under the carpet -- far from it. Experts suspect that this could only be a taster of what is to come.
Worryingly, it is still not clear exactly why the initial attacks were carried out. "There has been no acknowledgment of responsibility or reason for the attack," Flynn said. The origin of the attack also remains a mystery, as experts have yet to pinpoint its location.
The good news is that attacks such as these are rare -- the last was in 2002, when a similar denial-of-service attack was launched, but failed to cause mayhem.
Flynn told ENN that he fears it may be a precursor for another attack, this time taking out all 13 servers. If this were successfully carried out, it could cripple the internet.
"Like it or not, the internet is seen as being an American-controlled infrastructure," he said. "It is always going to be a target for anti-western sentiment."
Financial gain could be another motivation for the attack. Although the recent disruption yielded no obvious benefits for the hackers who carried it out, it may just be a dress rehearsal. "If someone was able to take the servers out, they could effectively hold it to ransom," said Flynn.
The attacks may have been carried out using botnets -- networks of computers that have been infected and are being remotely controlled by a third party. Experts are speculating that the incident could have been a test to see what capability the suspected hackers' armies of botnets had, and could then be used against a more lucrative target, such as a major online retailer.
However, with no clues about who carried out the attack and why, internet users -- and online businesses -- will have to sit tight and hope for the best.
Reproduced from an article published by ElectricNews.net
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