Millions Hit By Biggest Ever Internet Slowdown As Cyber-Hackers Drop ' Nuclear Bomb'

[webfact]

Millions hit by biggest ever internet slowdown as cyber-hackers drop 'nuclear bomb'
- SpamHaus group under attack from cyber-vandals in Geneva
- But other unconnected sites across the world have been caught in attack
- Now, emails have slowed down as a result, expert claims

LONDON: -- A bitter feud between two online companies has triggered the ‘biggest cyber attack in history’, slowing down internet services for millions across the world.

The row, between a group which aims to block unwanted emails known as ‘spam’ and a firm accused of sending them, has disrupted internet traffic on a global scale.

Five national cyber-police forces are understood to be investigating the attack, which is so large that experts believe personal banking and email services will soon be affected.

Cyber-attack: Dutch firm SpamHaus was targeted in an attack so big that 'bystanders worldwide' were apparently affected
Millions of web users have so far experienced disruption to popular services such as film and TV site Netflix, along with longer than usual delays in loading websites.

The problems began when spam-fighting company Spamhaus – a not-for-profit group that aims to help block unwanted junk emails – black-listed Dutch company Cyberbunker earlier this month.

Cyberbunker is what is known as a hosting company, meaning it allows organisations to make their websites accessible on the internet by providing space on a server.

Full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2299999/Global-internet-slowdown-biggest-cyber-attack-history.html

-- Daily Mail 2013-03-28

[davejones]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

[JetsetBkk]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

This story is being reported by BBC News.

[Hobnob]

It's basically hype, although some Europeans say they have experienced problems according to the BBC. But in reality this is just a PR stunt by the security company called in to deal with the attack. But Spamhaus deserves it anyway, bunch of extortionist gangsters that they are.

[wombat]

,

[davejones]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

This story is being reported by BBC News.

I know it is, but is it typical journalist hype? I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. If that is the nuclear option, then the internet is very safe. BBC often over-hypes stories. Or just doesn't understand what's going on, so says whatever the PR person told them to say.

Edited March 28, 2013 by davejones

[nbm47]

It only affected those who use Cyberspam as a means to get rid of spam from hitting their computers, for the rest of us it did make some websites a tad slower to get to unless of course you use a VPN or proxy site.

[JetsetBkk]

Totally agree about the BBC - just look at the rubbish they are currently spouting about Cyprus!

[rakman]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

The "instigator" is CyberBunker in the Netherlands against Spamhaus in Switzerland. Due to the primary routers being in the UK, sites and connectivity going through the UK were affected.

Spamhaus was also helped by CloudFlare to distribute Spamhaus services.

Here's how the attack worked. Many (unknown number) of bots would make thousands of small DNS requests to DNS servers that would generate a large response from the DNS servers world wide. The return address was spoofed to Spamhaus to flood their site. It was said at the peak 300 Gbps was directed at Spamhaus and CloudFlare.

This was the largest DDos on record. The effect world wide would be dependent on how much traffic was generated and from where to fill the pipes headed to Spamhaus. Normally, the main routers would redirect traffic to least used paths as the primary paths filled up. Could have been even worse than experienced.

[lineofentry]

April fool?

[dressedingreen]

No April fool!

My email was held up for hours because of this little joke. I use AIS to connect, and a number of their domains were compromised by the action. For 2 days I was constantly refused outgoing mail access, and received error messages telling me to visit a Spamhaus website to reset the 'offending' domains. It appears some of the AIS domains were considered to be implicated in the attack, probably falsely.

All back to normal now. Well ... as normal as AIS ever get when asked to send data in the general direction of the internet without trying to bounce it off Mars.

DIG

[fire and ice]

As my own VDS is in Sydney and so am I and 95% of my customers are also in Australia I can report everything runnign 100% smoohtly here!

Edited March 28, 2013 by fire and ice

[HarryMilton]

April fool?

Is it April?

[vijer]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

Strangely, my internet in Thailand is always slow, so it is difficult to tell if I am impacted!

[radiochaser]

I am in the United States. I have a web mail service that was purchased by a European based company about 2 years ago, from AOL, who purchased it about 6 months before. I think the main web mail servers are now located in Europe.

I was wondering if something was going on (and wondering if it was of North Korean activity) due to slow downs, loss of connectivity with the mail servers etc., it was still running better than it did the six months AOL owned the web mail service.!

Other websites that I visited were experinceing slowdowns. Some are also located in Europe.

So I do not think it was all hype!

[astral]

I have noticed slower response, even from ThaiVisa

but put it down to local glitches.

Perhaps not local??

[MYKTHEMIN]

Yes it is even slower than normal at the moment here in issan, what a pia!!!

[XINLOI]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

I have experienced for about three days now, a very slow internet and then it just stopped for about the last 24 hours. TOT Udon, Prajaksinlapakhom.

Edited March 29, 2013 by XINLOI

[bartender100]

International connections seem very slow this afternoon, getting 10MB to Thailand, but virtually nothing anywhere else.

Sophon cable Pattaya

[Cheops]

Strangely, I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. In fact everything is pretty fast. Has anyone on here experienced a slowdown? Or is this just a load of hype?

The "instigator" is CyberBunker in the Netherlands against Spamhaus in Switzerland. Due to the primary routers being in the UK, sites and connectivity going through the UK were affected.

Spamhaus was also helped by CloudFlare to distribute Spamhaus services.

Here's how the attack worked. Many (unknown number) of bots would make thousands of small DNS requests to DNS servers that would generate a large response from the DNS servers world wide. The return address was spoofed to Spamhaus to flood their site. It was said at the peak 300 Gbps was directed at Spamhaus and CloudFlare.

This was the largest DDos on record. The effect world wide would be dependent on how much traffic was generated and from where to fill the pipes headed to Spamhaus. Normally, the main routers would redirect traffic to least used paths as the primary paths filled up. Could have been even worse than experienced.

At least someone who knows what this is really about. Most of the other posters haven't a clue what happened and just read the nonsense news from BBC.

[54321]

internet being slow is incomparable to dropping a nuclear bomb. halfwit