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Cyberwar: Not your typical DDoS attack |
A series of cyber attacks on South Korean government and U.S. military Websites last March could have been North Korea testing its weaponry for a future cyber war, a major cyber security firm reported on July 5.
While acknowledging the tools used in the attacks -- distributed denial of service, malware that uses encryption and a multi-tier botnet architecture -- aren't new, their combination in the forays conducted in March are innovative. "[T]he combination of technical sophistication juxtaposed with relatively limited execution and myopic outcome is analogous to bringing a Lamborghini to a go-cart race," the report by McAfee noted.
"As such," it continued, "the motivations appear to outweigh the attack, making this truly seem like an exercise to test and observe response capabilities."
McAfee explained that the denial of service (DDoS) attacks against South Korean targets originated from computers infected with malware within that nation. Not only did the malware feed the DDoS assaults, which disrupted the service offerings of their targets, but it created a botnet controlled by a botmaster. That's not an unusual MO for botware, but these sorties had some distinctive characteristics. Read more
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