Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacksare
increasingly popular with cybercriminals, security researchers have
revealed.
This trend is being driven by the ready availability of DDoS
services in the
underground economy, according to latest
threat report from security firm McAfee.
These services are making it easier to carry out DDoS attacks by
offering thousands of hijacked computers for attacking websites to
the highest bidder.
The researchers said these botnets are capable of knocking even
some of the most-protected sites offline. To promote these botnets,
cybercriminals will even offer a "demo" performance for a few
minutes to prospective buyers, they said.
"In the last quarter, McAfee Labs observed many new
denial-of-service attacks, including some that demand ransom," the
report said.
Four Australian sports betting companies were taken down during
key events like the national football and rugby league finals,
resulting in millions of dollars of losses.
The McAfee report also found that spam and malware levels have
reached an all-time high, with threats surpassing previous records
in the last quarter.
Web-based attacks have also increased as cybercriminals take
advantage of celebrity deaths and natural disasters.
Spam reached its highest level in history, breaking the previous
record set in the second quarter of 2009 by 10%.
Spam now makes up 92% of all e-mail, jumping 24% compared with
the same period a year ago.
Web-based attacks are the most popular means of attack, and have
become one of the most dangerous tools cybercriminals use.
These attacks can target anyone who visits a malicious web page,
the report said, and are delivered to users through spam, phishing,
social networks and even through redirects from hijacked legitimate
websites.
Cybercriminals are getting increasingly effective at utilizing
search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to drive traffic to
these bad sites.