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DDoS Attack on Prolexic Targets DNSPharmamaster Hacks Away at Blue SecurityMay 10, 2006 - Prolexic, a company that provides website security services, is fighting a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack from hackers who are upset with the anti-spam software sold by Blue Security. Prolexic was hired by Blue Security to stop cyber attacks by managing all unusually heavy traffic loads. The determined hacker, identified as pharmamaster, flanked the security company's defenses and attacked UltraDNS, Prolexic's main Domain Name Service (DNS). UltraDNS could not stop the attack and many of its DNS servers were knocked down. When UltraDNS failed, Prolexic, Blue Security, and many other companies went offline. The hackers used a new kind of DDoS attack, called a "reflected DNS attack." To flood the DNS, the cyber criminal use poorly configured DNS servers to send compromised server requests to the target. The server that receives the gigantic traffic load cannot distinguish the difference between legitimate requests and the compromised requests. In the end, the DNS server becomes flooded with data and cannot respond. Along with Prolexic, thousands of its customers were also down. Among these customers were banks and financial services. The DDoS attack that targeted Blue Security, UltraDNS, and Prolexic crippled a large section of the Internet damaging businesses in the process. This attack highlights many vulnerabilities in DNS and the interconnectedness of many different business websites. In some respects, an attack against one company is an attack against all. Source: OneKIT About Secure64 Software Corporation
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