Tag: botnet

What is threat cumulativity and what does it mean for digital security?

January 4, 2019

A reflection on how acknowledging the cumulative nature of cyber-threats and understanding its implications can benefit our digital security. Threat cumulativity is a term I began to use in 2018 to refer to the tendency of new technologies to spawn new threats that add to old threats without displacing them. In this article I give … More What is threat cumulativity and what does it mean for digital security?

Could home appliances knock down power grids?

September 7, 2018

Far-fetched though it may sound, the answer is yes, according to researchers, who show that electrical grids and smart home appliances could make for a dangerous mix. Cybercriminals could rope internet-connected household appliances into a botnet in order to manipulate the demand side of the power grid and, ultimately, cause anything from local outages to large-scale blackouts, … More Could home appliances knock down power grids?

Smart irrigation systems vulnerable to attacks, warn researchers

August 22, 2018

Internet-connected irrigation systems suffer from security gaps that could be exploited by attackers aiming, for example, to deplete a city’s water reserves, researchers warn. Security researchers have warned of a potential attack that – using a “piping botnet” of internet-connected irrigation systems that water simultaneously – could impact a city’s water system to the point of … More Smart irrigation systems vulnerable to attacks, warn researchers

ESET helps law enforcement worldwide to disrupt Gamarue botnet

December 5, 2017

Law enforcement authorities across the globe disrupted many long-running botnets powered by a malware family dubbed as Gamarue, mostly detected by ESET as Win32/TrojanDownloader.Wauchos and also known as Andromeda, capping a year-plus concerted effort that relied on technical intelligence from Microsoft and ESET researchers. ESET, having been approached by Microsoft to join the disruption effort, provided a technical analysis … More ESET helps law enforcement worldwide to disrupt Gamarue botnet

DDoS attacks explained

September 4, 2017

A new DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on a prominent website is making headlines today (Aug. 24). Just days after the Department of Justice demanded visitor data for an anti-Trump website from the web host company DreamHost (which rejected the request), the company has reported a DDoS attack. DreamHost, which is home to more than … More DDoS attacks explained

Spiderman pleads guilty to knocking 900,000 German broadband routers offline

July 27, 2017

It seems that Spiderman is in a spot of trouble, tangled in a web of his own making. Back in November 2016, over 900,000 Deutsche Telekom broadband customers found themselves unable to access the internet, after their routers were hijacked by a malicious hacker attempting to recruit routers into a destructive botnet. Vulnerable Zyxel and Speedport routers … More Spiderman pleads guilty to knocking 900,000 German broadband routers offline

Everything you need to know about the latest variant of Petya

July 7, 2017

The latest global cyberattack, detected by ESET as Win32 / Diskcoder.C, once again highlights the reality that outdated systems and insufficient security solutions are still widespread. The damage caused by this attack has raised a number of questions, which we’ll answer for you here. What are the characteristics of this threat? Encryption: The ransomware only encrypts files with a … More Everything you need to know about the latest variant of Petya