Inside the World of Hacker Reconnaissance

The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell once stated, "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." Unfortunately, it appears that attackers launching DoS/DDoS attacks have embraced this line of thought and invested their efforts in reconnaissance and meticulous preparation during the "pre-attack" phase. Drawing from attacks handled by our Emergency Response Team (ERT), Radware recently conducted research on the ways in which pre-attack planning and detailed preparation dramatically increases the potency and success rate of attacks.

Mitigating Attacks in 2013: The Year Companies Push Hackers Back

In 2012, DDoS attacks revealed a new cyber security trend: attack campaigns that last for days and sometimes even weeks. Unfortunately, many organizations that find themselves under attack don’t know how to change the attack dynamics. Instead of working to halt attacks, many just wait passively for them to conclude.

But what about stopping the attack? Why can’t organizations become more proactive and implement counter measures that can halt the attackers from sending additional malicious traffic? Why not push the hackers back as far as possible from critical applications?

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Recapping the Bloomberg Enterprise Risk Conference

On Nov 29th I had the good fortune to participate in a 45-minute panel discussion at the Bloomberg Enterprise Risk Conference on the following topic:

“WHEN STATE-BASED, STATE-SPONSORED ACTORS TARGET FINANCIAL SERVICES INSTITUTIONS”

The panel consisted of a number of esteemed industry thought leaders including Dimitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and CTO, CrowdStrike Inc, John M. (Mike) McConnell, Vice Chairman, Booz | Allen | Hamilton; Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Andy Ozment, Senior Director for Cybersecurity, National Security Staff, The White House. Michael Riley, an industry reporting veteran from Bloomberg News and a true gentleman, moderated the panel.

A Study in Cyber Attack Defense Contrasts: Op Ababil vs OpIsrael

There is no doubt that the last couple of months have been historic in the world of cyber security. In October, it was US banks and financial institutions that faced a barrage of cyber attacks during “Operation Ababil.” In November, Israeli websites came under fire during the Anonymous led “OpIsrael” attacks. However, there is a stark contrast in the effectiveness of these two attack operations. While the banking attacks were by-and-large successful, the attacks on Israeli websites fell short.

Of course the question for security experts is – how do we explain this disparity? Is it because the financial sector didn’t have enough resources or serious professionals dedicated to program management? Is it because the Israeli government possessed a cyber defense strategy that was executed flawlessly? In truth, neither scenario seems likely and the real answer may make some a bit uncomfortable.

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Anonymous Launches #OpIsrael – Attacking Israeli Websites in Conjunction with Gaza Missile Attack

As you have likely have read in the news today, the hacktivist group Anonymous launched #OpIsrael – an online attack of Israeli websites in retaliation for recent missiles attacks from Gaza. Through efforts on social media outlets, IRCs and Pastebin, Anonymous called for its tens of thousands of supporters from around the world to join this attack.

This morning, Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) released a new threat alert regarding an upcoming DDoS attack on Israeli websites including the IDF website, the Prime Minister Office website, Israeli banks, airlines and infrastructure sites. The attack started at 10AM Israel time on 11/15 and is expected to last for many hours.