Net Attack Code Shared Online

Security experts fear the release may prompt more massive attacks to knock websites by swamping them with data.

17:33 04 October 2016

The “Mirai” net attack code was released over the weekend on a widely used hacker chat forum. Security experts now fear that the move can result in more massive attacks that can affect hundreds of websites that can be knocked off by swamping them with enormous amount of data.

 

It is believed that it is the same code that was used in late September that targeted security blogger Brian Krebs in late September when more than 620 gigabits of data every second was sent to this website.

 

The tool takes advantage of smart devices in homes that use easy-to-guess passwords. Following the release, net monitoring firms reported that they have already seen an increase in scans that seek out vulnerable devices.

 

Dale Drew, chief security officer at net firm Level 3, said: "There is already a surge in botnet operators attempting to find and exploit IoT devices in order to gain access to uniform and sizable botnet networks.”

 

Stephen Gates, chief research intelligence analyst at NSFocus, said that the growth of such large loT botnets could result in chunks of the net get knocked out. He also warned that owners of compromised gadgets will most likely to notice that their browsing speeds slow down significantly as their home net connection is used to send attack data.