South African ISPs targeted by DDoS attacks

[Jamie McKane]

South African ISPs targeted by DDoS attacks

A number of South African Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been targeted by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks over the past few weeks, with the latest victim being Cybersmart.

Cybersmart customers experienced intermittent issues from 19-22 October as attackers attempted to bring down the ISP's network with a series of complex attacks.

 

[Jamie McKane]

If anyone has information regarding connectivity problems with their ISPs due to these DDoS attacks, we would be happy to collate reports and investigate these anomalies.

 

[McGuywer]

It is impossible to determine which organisation or individual might be targeting South African ISPs, or what their aim is in disrupting local Internet networks.

See who wasn't targeted, then we know it is them....

 

[S.Claus]

Script kiddies....much wow.

 

[AstroTurf]

I think it's DSTV

 

[Thor]

“We have for a long time suspected there is a person or organization targetting ISPs in South Africa,” Fialkov said.

Who do you suspect?

My money is on DSTV or Afrihost since Carpet-bombing is a technique that's predominately used against ISPs and isn't usually used anywhere else. To connect the dots, who stand to benefit?

Sometimes attacks are timed during peak browsing hours to frustrate users even more. Determined attackers do appear to be motivated to cause as much dissatisfaction as possible for the customer, resulting in losses for the provider as well as bad press.

 

[r00igev@@r]

The only potential beneficiaries are the guys selling DDOS scrubbing services.

 

[Bernie]

If anyone has information regarding connectivity problems with their ISPs due to these DDoS attacks, we would be happy to collate reports and investigate these anomalies.

The last 3 days I have been having serious degradation of bandwidth on my ISPAfrika link - WTTH. This is very unusual and in general this has never been an issue, so it may be relevant. Could also just be an issue they having. I haven't logged a ticket yet either.

 

[Budza]

The only potential beneficiaries are the guys selling DDOS scrubbing services.

What does it cost to orchestrate something like this?

 

[r00igev@@r]

What does it cost to orchestrate something like this?

You can do the attack for $10 but they charge from $500 per attack mitigation.

 

[cavedog]

What does it cost to orchestrate something like this?

Well basically you just need to be techsavvy and have access to a decent sized botnet to bring an ISP down with a DNS amplification attack. Ohh and you need to target the right IPs/machines.