Massive Cyberattack Jamming the Internet
March 27, 2013
The Internet has been slowed down worldwide by what security experts describe as the biggest cyberattack in history. A London-based spam-fighting group called Spamhaus has claimed that a Dutch firm named Cyberbunker is behind the attacks. Cyberbunker is a Web host, a company that provides servers for the websites of multiple customers. Security experts confirm that the attacks are causing widespread congestion on the Internet and could affect online banking and e-mail delivery around the world.
Spamhaus is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping e-mail providers filter out spam and other unwanted content. Cyberbunker advertises that it offers hosting services to any website, “except of child pornography or terrorism-related material.” On its website, Cyberbunker declares that its “many controversial customers” has made it a frequent target of law enforcement. Spamhaus accused Cyberbunker of spamming and added the Web host to its blacklist, which is used by e-mail providers to weed out spam. Cyberbunker responded that Spamhaus was abusing its position and should not be allowed to decide “what goes and does not go on the Internet.”
Using swarms of computers called botnets, the attackers were flooding Spamhaus’s multiple servers with massive amounts of traffic in an attempt to make their website unreachable. “These attacks are peaking at 300 gigabits per second,” Spamhaus chief executive Steve Linford told the BBC. “Normally when there are attacks against major banks, we’re talking about 50 gigabits per second.” Patrick Gilmore, chief architect at a major digital content provider, described the situation to The New York Times: “These guys [Cyberbunker] are just mad. To be frank, they got caught. They think they should be allowed to spam.” Five national cyberpolice forces are investigating the attacks.
Additional World Book articles:
- Hackers, Criminals, and Terrorists (a special report)
- The New Face of Crime (a special report)