Upon reflection, BitTorrent amplifies DDoS attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are the plat du jour for cyber-criminals looking to deflect attention and resources from a breach elsewhere within the target enterprise, as well as hacktivists taking sites down with political or just plain malicious motivation alike. According to the Q2 2015 State of the Internet report from Akamai, the number of DDoS attacks has grown by 132 per cent compared to the same time last year. Not only is that a record high, or low depending upon which side of the security fence you are positioned, the number of 'almost indefensible' mega-attacks, those peaking in excess of 1,000Gbps/50Mpps, was also on the up. Anything that can help the bad guys to make a DDoS attack easier, bigger and more destructive is never good news; enter stage left, the villain of the piece in the shape of the Distributed Reflective DoS (DRDos) attack. Although DRDos attacks are not exactly new, new methods to launch them are always high on the agenda of both those out to cause problems, and to prevent them. So when we heard that a new DRDos attack using BitTorrent was being demonstrated, SCMagazineUK.com decided to investigate further.