DNS at DoubleClick Slowed by Denial of Service Attacks

Vulnerable DNS systems give hackers an alternative to direct attacks on a business

July 27, 2004 - The method preferred by most cyber vandals is the Denial of Service or DoS attack, targeting the DNS services. Because attackers use thousands of enslaved computers to send bogus webpage requests, legitimate requests from clients cannot be processed. Consequently, major ripple effects of such an attack can be felt all across the Internet.

DoubleClick was the victim of this kind of attack starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time in the United States. "Beginning this morning our DNS infrastructure came under a denial-of-service attack from outside sources," said spokeswoman Jennifer Blum. The website was crippled due to a flood of bogus Web page requests. By blocking DoubleClick, the attackers also managed to block many of the major websites that use DoubleClick's ads. All 900 of the company's customers and approximately 40 websites were affected. At the peak of the attack, web pages could be loaded only 25% of the time. CNN.com was also affected by the attack on DoubleClick, but CNN managed to keep the news section online as it was running on a different network.

Because most corporate security measures (including firewalls) tend to ignore DNS, attacks on the DNS pose a higher risk and a greater vulnerability. Although the proper authorities were contacted, DoubleClick's attackers remain unknown and the damage produced reminds the world of the flaws in the Domain Name Server services. Note that DNS is the system of servers that match up names (DoubleClick.net) with the numeric IP addresses used by Internet machines to route traffic.

Cyber attackers have learned that they can have a large ripple effect across the Internet by attacking individual companies like DoubleClick or Akamai. These focused attacks can take out 95% of what the Internet means to many people. How is it done? The problem resides in the fact that the target is a common infrastructure, relied upon by many companies. It's like a tower, if you take out its base, the rest will collapse. By taking out companies like DoubleClick, attackers also damage all the companies that are linked to them. In particular, by blocking DoubleClick, any website would experience problems when trying to contact the company's servers to retrieve ads.

The attacks on DoubleClick are a warning to many that instead of attacking many small companies (or your company), cyber vandals can target key Internet companies to disrupt your service. If such attacks continue, many people will feel the consequences and many companies will suffer the damages.

Source: InfoWorld

About Secure64 Software Corporation
Secure64® is a software developer providing highly secure DNS and server applications with built-in denial-of-service protection features to help ensure your Internet-dependent business is always accessible. Based on the genuinely secure SourceT® microOS, Secure64 DNS remains highly available during network attacks and is immune to compromise from rootkits and malware.

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