Experts Say Internet 'Mega' Attacks Are on the Rise

An anonymous reader shares a Fortune report:The phenomenon of hackers knocking websites offline with massive floods of Internet traffic is nothing new. But the pattern of these so-called DDoS attacks (for "distributed denial of service") is changing, according to a new report from internet provider Akamai. The report, published on Tuesday, suggests the overall number of DDoS attacks has not risen significantly in 2016, but that the force of these attacks is increasing. Akamai says it confronted 19 "mega attacks" in the third quarter of this year, including the two biggest it has ever encountered in history. "It's interesting that while the overall number of attacks fell by 8% quarter over quarter, the number of large attacks, as well as the size of the biggest attacks, grew significantly," said the report.

It would be nice...

[cayenne8]

...if they'd target a couple of the most disruptive sites out there...Facebook and Twitter.

I'd just love to see the panic on peoples' faces, especially the most recent generation which doesn't seem to know how to carry on a real live, meatspace interaction without it.....

Hell, turn them off for maybe a couple of weeks and give everyone a break.

It would be amazing to see what actually gets done during that outtage......

Re:

[110010001000]

He is so old he thinks that the most recent generation still uses Twitter and Facebook. Everyone knows they use Snapchat and Instagram.

Re:

[fisted]

He is old enough to know that "facebook and twitter" are mere placeholders for $latest_trendy_social_platform. Like it mattered in the slightest which particular platform that actually is. Now get off our lawn, PFY.

Re:

[110010001000]

There is a big difference between Facegram and Twitterchat, old man!

Re:

[tlhIngan]

He is so old he thinks that the most recent generation still uses Twitter and Facebook. Everyone knows they use Snapchat and Instagram.

Instagram is owned by Facebook. Snapchat looks like it's not owned by Facebook or Twitter, yet, but who knows in a week's time.

So in the end, they all use Twitter and Facebook, or whatever trendy social network service is owned by them.

Re:

[ogdenk]

Damn kids today with their Slapchat, Chitter, Instaflam and BookFace.... brats don't know how good they got it. Back in my day we posted on BBS's using an ASR-33 teletype and a 110bps acoustic coupler modem hooked to our homebuilt S100 CP/M crate.... and we LIKED IT. Get offa muh LAWN!!!

(Disclaimer: In reality I started out with an Atari 130XE and a 1200bps smartmodem..... I'm not THAT old.)

Re:

[FatdogHaiku]

But how would people get their fake news and echo chamber positive feedback?
Are you working for the newsprint industry?

Re:

[freeze128]

Could have been useful during the election. It's too late now.

Re:

[diesalesmandie]

...if they'd target a couple of the most disruptive sites out there...Facebook and Twitter.

I'd just love to see the panic on peoples' faces, especially the most recent generation which doesn't seem to know how to carry on a real live, meatspace interaction without it.....

Hell, turn them off for maybe a couple of weeks and give everyone a break.

It would be amazing to see what actually gets done during that outtage......

Project much?

Re:

[Drethon]

The most recent generation is as fragile as snowflakes. Take away their social media, and they'll self-destruct.

But everyone tells me I'm a unique and beautiful snowflake!

Re:

[cayenne8]

But everyone tells me I'm a unique and beautiful snowflake!

And, here's your participation trophy...

;)

Slashdot!

[antdude]

What about /.? What will we do? ;)

Re:

[Archangel Michael]

against??

The ONLY way to stop a DDOS, is to isolate, and knock off endpoints that are compromised and under the command and control of the perpetrators.

And the only way to do that, is to start having a Distributed response. It isn't going to be easy but it is the only way.

Re:

[pr0fessor]

Are you saying vigilante worms that look for known infections and infection paths then remove and patch them.

Wasn't there already a few that did that?
 

Coincidence?

[alvinrod]

I wonder if they have any relation to the recent "super" moons that we've been hearing about recently.

Re:

[jbmartin6]

Mr Show did it [youtube.com]

IORT or IOCT

[Tablizer]

Internet of Rogue Things, or Internet of Compromised Things

Re:

[Moheeheeko]

Exactly, the people who use these botnets aren't increasing in number, the number of stupid people on the internet getting infected are.

Re:

[Archangel Michael]

And good luck finding that fly by night device maker that sold cheap IOT($Device) . They are already out of business.

Now what? How do you get those out of use?

Re:

[ebyrob]

Have their ISP shut down the IP connecting them to the internet. Once the infected broken device is removed, their NATed sub-network can have internet again.

Re:

[0100010001010011]

The botnets are effective because people forgot how the internet was designed. Lets consolidate all of our services to a few providers in a limited numeber of locations, what could go wrong? /s

The Internet itself was designed to withstand a nuclear attack on any part of it. From what I've read FatBoy leaves a bit more destruction in its path than a bunch of DNS lookups or ping -f.

Stop consolidating all of your core into a few data centers.

And if you're really pissed that the internet is 'broken' go back to

Who'da thunk it?

[Gravis Zero]

Who could have possibly predicted that the Internet of Things was a security nightmare? Oh that's right, everyone with half a brain.