Powerful New DDoS Method Adds Extortion
Summary: Attackers are abusing the memcached caching service, which runs by default on many Linux systems and communicates over unauthenticated UDP, to amplify DDoS traffic thousands of times over; Akamai reported a client hit with a 1.3 Tbps attack on March 1, which it called the largest publicly recorded DDoS to date. Cybereason found the attackers embedding a ransom note demanding 50 Monero into the junk traffic, and netlab@360 reported memcached attacks rising from under 50 per day to 1,484 per day after February 24, 2018.
What you should know: Akamai believes more than 50,000 memcached systems are exposed on the Internet and can be used at a moment's notice, and with amplification this large, a single home broadband connection and a simple script are enough to run an extortion campaign against your address.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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