FBI warn over TDoS attacks on emergency centers

Federal law enforcement officials are reporting a rise in attacks in which the telephone lines of emergency call centers are flooded with bogus calls by extortionists whose demands for cash are refused.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently issued an alert on the bizarre scheme first reported by the blog KrebsonSecurity. Dozens of recent attacks have been reported against the call centers, which handle administrative and emergency calls for police, firefighting and ambulance services. Emergency 911 lines were not affected.

So-called telephony denial-of-service (TDoS) attacks have been on the rise against public and private organizations, according to a recent report by SecureLogix, which provides TDoS mitigation services. Typically, the motivation is to extort money or to protest a particular political or social cause.