The first half of 2021 brought both bad news and good news about distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The DDoS threat continues to be a global problem, at a massive scale, with increasing complexity, but proactive actions have had a positive impact.
Threat actors have started to actively exploit critical Microsoft Azure vulnerabilities, just days after Microsoft disclosed them during September's Patch Tuesday.
Netlab, the networking security division of Chinese security firm Qihoo 360, said it had discovered a new fledgling malware operation that is currently infecting Android devices for the purpose of assembling a DDoS botnet, according to a ZDNet report.
Law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide have this week disrupted one of most significant botnets of the past decade: EMOTET. Investigators have now taken control of its infrastructure in an international coordinated action.
While the technical root causes are the same, the impact of an IoT botnet attack on consumer versus enterprise and industrial devices is vastly different. An attack on a consumer gadget could be limited to a privacy issue, whereas the effect of a successful breach on a commercial device can have a significant production or safety cost. That’s why it’s more critical than ever for IT and OT security professionals to understand and be prepared to defend against this growing threat.
