Rash of router-based DDoS attacks imminent--CERT
Source: Computer User
The widespread use of poorly configured network routers has opened the door to an "imminent" spate of attacks that could slow Internet traffic to a crawl, according to report published by a government-funded security watchdog group.
"We believe this to be an imminent and real threat with a potentially high impact," wrote researchers with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), located at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Routing protocol attacks are being actively discussed in some intruder circles and have become agenda items" at public hacker conferences.
The report notes that intruders are increasingly compromising routers using vendor-supplied default passwords. The traffic-routing circuits are then redirected for use in so-called "distributed denial-of-service" DDoS attacks, in which a targeted Web site(s) is crippled by an overwhelming amount of network traffic. The attacks usually emanate from a number of different compromised systems, and are generally very difficult--if not impossible--to defend against.
Click here for a a copy of the CERT report. You can continue to read the Newsbytes story here.
