Experts are warning that a mega hack attack that exploited a key vulnerability of the Internet – which is claimed to be the biggest of its kind – could be the start of “ugly things to come”.
Hosting and security firm Cloudflare said hackers used weaknesses in the so-called “Network Time Protocol (NTP)”, a system used to synchronise computer clocks, to flood servers with huge amounts of data.
Although the target of this latest onslaught has yet to be released – Cloudflare would only say that it was directed at servers in Europe – the technique could potentially be used to force popular services offline.
Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince said the firm had measured the attack at about 400 gigabits per second (Gbps), 100Gbps larger than an attack on anti-spam service Spamhaus last year.
“Amplification attacks result in an attacker turning a small amount of bandwidth coming from a small number of machines into a massive traffic load hitting a victim from around the Internet,” Cloudfare explained in a blog
Prince said that while his firm had been able to mitigate the attack, it was a worrying sign for the future. “Someone’s got a big, new cannon,” he tweeted. “Start of ugly things to come.”
Related stories
Cops ‘don’t care about cyber crime’
Adobe data attack ‘may hit billions’
Top US stars hit by D&B breach
Foxtons hit by online hack attack
Hacking staff could wind up firm
58m rocked by Ubisoft hack attack
Hackers get ugly with attack that threatens to wreak havoc with the Internet http://t.co/FlR1e6qJEC #dataprotection #data #digitalmarketing