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Several banks and websites in the Netherlands – including the Dutch tax authority – have fallen victim to severe distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in recent months – and the suspected culprit is just 18 years old. He allegedly bought webstresser tools online to carry out the attacks. In the wake of the attacks, security experts have suggested that more cooperation between organisations can help to tackle the problem. In an open letter, five experts said companies, banks, government institutions and the Dutch national cyber security centre should work together to identify malicious actors and websites. Any strategy to prevent and fight DDoS attacks must start by identifying the threat. After the attacks in the Netherlands in late January, many were quick to point an accusing finger at Russia. “Analysts, researchers and even police detectives rely on the confirmation bias,” said John Fokker, head of cyber investigations at McAfee, who previously worked for the digital branch of the Dutch police. “One it was seen that an...