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Massive cyber-attack grinds Liberia's internet to a halt | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
The entire internet infrastructure of the African nation of Liberia has been brought to a grinding halt after it was targeted by hackers using the same weapon that caused the largest cyber-attack in history just two weeks ago. | |
The attack was a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, in which a network of infected computers – a botnet – is directed to bombard its target with traffic, overloading its servers. | |
The weapon used in the October attack, the Mirai botnet, was particularly effective because it harnessed infected, internet-connected devices such as DVR players and digital cameras. | The weapon used in the October attack, the Mirai botnet, was particularly effective because it harnessed infected, internet-connected devices such as DVR players and digital cameras. |
Now the same weapon has been used over the past seven days in continued attacks on the west African nation of Liberia, according to Kevin Beaumont, a security expert who has been closely monitoring attacks using Mirai botnets. | Now the same weapon has been used over the past seven days in continued attacks on the west African nation of Liberia, according to Kevin Beaumont, a security expert who has been closely monitoring attacks using Mirai botnets. |
“We’re seeing attacks over 600gbps [gigabytes per second] aimed at two companies which co-own the only fibre going into [Liberia],” Beaumont told the Guardian, adding that during the attacks websites inside the country are rendered unavailable outside as well. “The recent attacks ... are huge in volume – among the most amount of traffic internet has seen.” | “We’re seeing attacks over 600gbps [gigabytes per second] aimed at two companies which co-own the only fibre going into [Liberia],” Beaumont told the Guardian, adding that during the attacks websites inside the country are rendered unavailable outside as well. “The recent attacks ... are huge in volume – among the most amount of traffic internet has seen.” |
Zdnet reported that infrastructure providers had said the attacks were over 500gbps in size – not as large as the 1,100gbps (1.1 terabytes per second) attack in October, but still among the largest DDoS attacks ever. | Zdnet reported that infrastructure providers had said the attacks were over 500gbps in size – not as large as the 1,100gbps (1.1 terabytes per second) attack in October, but still among the largest DDoS attacks ever. |
The previous target was Dyn, a company that controls a large number of domain name service infrastructure that acts as a switchboard for internet traffic, through which the attack brought down major internet services across Europe and the US including Twitter, Netflix and Spotify. | The previous target was Dyn, a company that controls a large number of domain name service infrastructure that acts as a switchboard for internet traffic, through which the attack brought down major internet services across Europe and the US including Twitter, Netflix and Spotify. |
Experts told the Guardian that the Dyn attack may have been by far the largest of its kind. Mirai is also open source, meaning anyone with the requisite know-how can use it. | |
The particular Mirai botnet that is attacking Liberia, officially named Botnet 14 14, has a Twitter account – @MiraiAttacks – which tweeted threateningly at Beaumont after he looked into the attacks, leading him to dub this particular Mirai botnet “Shadows Kill”. | The particular Mirai botnet that is attacking Liberia, officially named Botnet 14 14, has a Twitter account – @MiraiAttacks – which tweeted threateningly at Beaumont after he looked into the attacks, leading him to dub this particular Mirai botnet “Shadows Kill”. |
It is not known who is wielding the Mirai botnet against Liberia, or whether it is a state actor or independent hackers. In a blogpost, Beaumont said: “The attacks are extremely worrying because they suggest a Mirai operator who has enough capacity to seriously impact systems in a nation state.” | |
The Liberian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. | The Liberian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. |