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Attack Types & VectorsSecurity

What is a Zero-Day Attack?

April 2, 2019 — by Radware — 0

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Zero-day attacks are the latest, never-before-seen generation of attacks. They are not volumetric or detectable from a known application signature. Security systems and experts must react instantly to solve the new issues, that is, they have zero days to react. Advanced application-level attacks typically fit into this category.

Two Distinct Phases

Probe and Learn: Hackers assess network defenses and probe for vulnerabilities, looking for different weaknesses and identifying the type of attacks that will potentially be effective. It’s like an archer who picks the best arrows to put in his quiver before battle. For example, a hacker may determine that a combination of encrypted attacks, attacks from a rotating IP address source, new low and slow attacks and headless browser attacks will be most effective.

[You may also like: Protecting Applications in a Serverless Architecture]

Optimize, Morph and Attack: Hackers launch the attack and then vary the attack vectors (or arrows from the quiver). In this case, hackers often understand that legacy DDoS mitigators need manual intervention to troubleshoot and mitigate a zero-day attack. So they attack the weakness of the legacy mitigator (multiple manual troubleshooting cycles to stop an attack) in addition to attacking the application vulnerabilities.

Who Are the Attackers?

Richard Clarke, former special cybersecurity advisor to the U.S. president, devised an acronym — C.H.E.W. — to categorize and explain the origin of cyberattacks (that specifically target carriers and enterprises):

  • Cybercrime — the notion that someone is going to attack you with the primary motive being financial gain from the endeavor.
  • Hacktivism — attacks motivated by ideological differences. The primary focus of these attacks is not financial gain but rather persuading or dissuading certain actions or “voices.”
  • Espionage — straightforward motive of gaining information on another organization in pursuit of political, financial, capitalistic, market share or some other form of leverage.
  • War (Cyber) — the notion of a nation-state or transnational threat to an adversary’s centers of power via a cyberattack. Attacks could focus on nonmilitary critical infrastructure.

[You may also like: How Cyberattacks Directly Impact Your Brand]

The attackers can range from a tech-savvy teenager to a highly organized group that taps into huge server farms in places like Russia and Ukraine to facilitate attacks.

The types of hackers are as varied that the methods they employ and include APTs (advanced persistent threats) agents, corporate spies, cybercriminals, cyberwarriors, hacktivists, rogue hackers, spammers and malware spreaders.

Read “Radware’s 2018 Web Application Security Report” to learn more.

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Attack Types & VectorsDDoSSecuritySSL

Here are the specific ways the 2016 Republican National Convention (RNC) and Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be Cyber-Attacked

June 2, 2016 — by Carl Herberger — 1

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Major Attack Type: Denial of Service Attacks

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks have grown each and every year since 2010. Moreover, the lessons of what are the most successful attacks and the reduction of cost and skill needed to execute these attacks have both dramatically been reduced. Today, for $6 one can rent an Amazon Web Service-based “Booter” to attack any foe at a moment’s notice. In fact, one can enlist the support of hundreds or thousands of infected ‘bots’ including the Internet of Things (IoT) when theoretically almost anything internet-connected can be directed.

Attack Types & VectorsDDoSHacksSecurity

Cyber Security Predictions for 2016

January 14, 2016 — by Ron Winward — 1

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It’s fun to predict what may happen over a year in security.  The industry moves so fast and while some things do stay the course, it only takes one small catalyst to spark a new direction that nobody could have predicted.

There are many predictions already for 2016.  Radware has our own, which will be released soon as part of our annual Global Application & Network Security Report.  In the meantime, I wanted to share some other predictions made by other industry colleagues that piqued my personal interest.

DDoSSecurity

Turkey DNS Servers Under Attack

December 22, 2015 — by Daniel Smith — 10

Since Monday December 14th, Turkey’s DNS servers, ns1.nic.tr – ns5.nic.tr, have been the target of a persistent denial of service attack. This 40Gbps amplification attack targeted all 5 nic.tr servers and saw peaks close to 200 Gbps.  The attack left more than 400,000 websites down in Turkey and DNS servers unable to respond to queries.

Attack MitigationDDoS AttacksSecurity

6 Types of DDoS Protection for Your Business

July 14, 2014 — by David Monahan — 2

David Monahan is Research Director for Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and is a featured guest blogger.

DDoS attacks have become commonplace these days.  The offending attackers may be hacktivists, cyber-criminals, and nation states or just about anyone else with an Internet grudge and a PayPal or Bitcoin account.  These attacks themselves often require no technical skill.  Someone with a bone to pick can simply purchase the use of any number of nodes on one or more botnets for an hourly fee (long term rate discounts available); use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to organize the attack and then launch it.

Attack MitigationDDoS AttacksSecurity

Cyber Attacks on Oil and Gas

July 11, 2014 — by David Hobbs — 1

A few weeks ago, news agencies shared reports on the Energetic Bear attack. This cyber-attack, or rather virus, was reportedly introduced by a Russian hacking group and it targeted oil, gas, power, and energy investment companies. The threatening malware had the ability to shut down major power grids, oil pipelines, gas, and energy traders. Analysts speculate that the attack motive was to gain competitive advantage in state-sponsored espionage against global oil and energy producers.

Attack MitigationDDoS AttacksSecurity

Geopolitics and Cyber: A New War?

March 17, 2014 — by Carl Herberger — 1

This week, I was interview by Fox Business on how hacktivism takes center stage when geopolitical tensions rise. (Geopolitical Tensions Invade Cyberspace, March 11, Fox Business)

In the interview, we discussed how groups and actors that are against state-run edicts, policies and the like take to the web to quickly mobilize and then antagonize and disrupt their adversaries. They leverage online outlets such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media properties as their platform to denounce who they’re against and why.

Events

My Perspective: E-Crime Congress — “Are You Ready for the Next Generation of DDoS Attacks?”

February 6, 2014 — by Werner Thalmeier — 0

Last week, I had the opportunity to present on behalf of Radware at the Annual e-Crime Congress in Frankfurt, Germany.  This event is one of the region’s largest meetings of senior information risk and security professionals and Radware held a panel presentation for those who were in attendance.

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