A botnet attack involves a network of compromised computers, or "bots," which are controlled by a single entity, often referred to as a "botmaster." These botnets can be used to launch large-scale cyberattacks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm a target’s resources, rendering it inaccessible.
In 2016, hackers used the Mirai botnet to take control of millions of devices and launched a huge DDoS attack on Dyn, a major domain name server provider.
Some hackers also take over IoT devices to "brick" them, which means they damage the device’s firmware so it becomes useless. They do this for fun or to teach people about cybersecurity.
As language models become integral in various applications, they present new cyberattack vectors. LLMjacking, or Large Language Model hijacking, involves manipulating language models to generate harmful or misleading information.
Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in these models to spread misinformation, influence public opinion, or even automate phishing attacks. The rise of AI-powered tools necessitates the implementation of stringent security measures to safeguard against such manipulations.
Companies that utilize cloud-hosted Large Language Models (LLMs) are at risk of LLM jacking because they possess the necessary server resources to operate generative AI programs. Hackers might exploit these resources for personal purposes, such as creating their own images, or for more malicious activities like generating harmful code, contaminating the models, or stealing sensitive information.
While an individual hijacking a cloud-based LLM for personal use might not cause significant damage, the costs associated with resource usage can be substantial. A severe attack could result in charges ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 per day for the owner.
Unlike traditional malware that aims to steal information, ransomware directly extorts victims. Attackers encrypt valuable data and demand payment, often in cryptocurrency, for the decryption key. Organizations of all sizes are potential targets, and the financial and reputational damage can be severe. Preventative measures, including regular data backups and cybersecurity training, are crucial in mitigating the risks of ransomware attacks.
An insider threat comes from within the organization, typically from employees, contractors, or business partners who have inside information concerning the organization’s security practices. These threats can be malicious or unintentional but are dangerous due to the privileged access insiders have.
They may misuse their access to steal sensitive information, disrupt operations, or introduce vulnerabilities. Organizations need to implement strict access controls, regular monitoring, and education to reduce the risk of insider threats.
Man-in-the-middle attacks occur when an attacker intercepts communication between two parties without their knowledge. The attacker can then eavesdrop, manipulate, or steal sensitive information being exchanged.
MitM attacks are particularly concerning for financial transactions and other confidential communications. Encrypted communication channels, strong authentication methods, and educating users about potential risks are effective strategies to prevent such attacks.
Phishing remains one of the most prevalent cyber threats, evolving in sophistication and technique. Attackers use deceptive emails, messages, or websites to trick individuals into divulging personal information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.
Spear phishing, a targeted form of phishing, involves personalized attacks on specific individuals or organizations, making them harder to detect. Continuous cybersecurity awareness training and employing advanced email filtering solutions can help protect against phishing schemes.
In our increasingly digital world, cybersecurity is a growing concern for everyone— from businesses and governments to everyday individuals. As technology advances, it opens up exciting possibilities and creates new, sophisticated cyber threats. Recent high-profile attacks, like those on Ascension and the French government, show just how damaging these threats can be.
Cybercriminals are always finding new ways to exploit weaknesses. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime damages could hit $10.5 trillion a year by 2025. This huge number highlights why strong cybersecurity measures are so important.
One major evolution in cyber threats is seen in ransomware attacks. These attacks used to be about locking up data and demanding a ransom to unlock it. Cybercriminals also steal data and threaten to release it publicly, which can disrupt businesses and ruin reputations. For example, in May, the Black Basta group attacked Ascension, the largest non-profit Catholic health system in the U.S., disrupting operations in its 140 hospitals and affecting patient care.
Supply chain attacks are another big concern. These attacks target vulnerabilities in the network of suppliers and partners that businesses rely on. This makes securing the entire supply chain crucial.
Cybercriminals are also using artificial intelligence (AI) to make their attacks more powerful. Examples include DeepLocker, a type of AI-powered malware that stays hidden until it reaches its target, and deepfake scams, where AI creates fake videos or audio to trick people into transferring money. AI-driven malware can change its behaviour to avoid detection, making it even more dangerous.
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are another serious threat. These attacks flood a website or network with so much traffic that it can’t function. In March 2024, a massive DDoS attack targeted over 300 web domains and 177,000 IP addresses linked to the French government, causing major disruptions.
Building a Strong Cybersecurity Defense
To fight these evolving threats, businesses need to build strong cybersecurity defenses. One effective approach is the zero-trust model, which means every access request is verified, no matter where it comes from. Key parts of this model include multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires more than one form of verification to access systems, and least privilege access, which ensures users only have access to what they need to do their job.
Advanced monitoring tools are also essential. Security information and event management (SIEM) systems, combined with AI-driven analytics, help detect and respond to threats in real time by providing a comprehensive view of network activities.
Human error is a major vulnerability in cybersecurity, so employee training and awareness are crucial. Regular training programs can help employees recognise and respond to threats like phishing attacks, creating a culture of security awareness.
The Role of AI in Cybersecurity
While AI helps cybercriminals, it also offers powerful tools for defending against cyber threats. AI can analyse vast amounts of data to spot patterns and anomalies that might indicate an attack. It can detect unusual behaviour in networks and help security analysts respond more quickly and efficiently to threats.
AI can also identify and mitigate insider threats by analysing user behaviour and spotting deviations from typical activity patterns. This helps strengthen overall security.
The future of cybersecurity will involve constant innovation and adaptation to new challenges. AI will play a central role in both defence and predictive analytics, helping foresee and prevent potential threats. Ethical considerations and developing frameworks for responsible AI use will be important.
Businesses need to stay ahead by adopting new technologies and continuously improving their cybersecurity practices. Collaboration between industries and with government agencies will be crucial in creating comprehensive strategies.
Looking to the future, we need to keep an eye on potential threats and innovations. Quantum computing promises new breakthroughs but also poses a threat to current encryption methods. Advances in cryptography will lead to more secure ways to protect data against emerging threats.
As cyber threats evolve, staying informed and adopting best practices are essential. Continuous innovation and strategic planning are key to staying ahead of cybercriminals and protecting critical assets.
The motives behind DDoS attacks can vary. In the case of the Internet Archive, it seems:
"Archive.org is under DDoS attack," the nonprofit's X account announced Monday morning. "The data is not affected, but most services are unavailable."
The nonprofit swiftly responded to the attacks. While details about the perpetrators have not surfaced, the organization changed its infrastructure to enhance resilience. It’s a delicate balancing act: maintaining accessibility while safeguarding against future attacks.
A few hours later, the organization reported that there was some "back and forth with the attackers." The business says it made certain improvements to its service but has not yet revealed further data on the attackers' identity or any likely motive for the attack.
Multiple X users reported that the site was still down Monday afternoon, despite Internet Archive's announcement that its services had been restored. On Monday, the organization verified that the DDoS attacks have resumed.
The archive site also reported network traffic difficulties on Sunday. Brewster Kahle, the founder and board chair of the Internet Archive, stated that the troubles on Sunday could have been caused by an "over-aggressive crawling group" or a DDoS attack and that the site typically experiences more technical issues on weekends.
DDoS attacks are like digital traffic jams. They flood a target server with an overwhelming volume of requests, causing it to slow down or crash. Here’s how they work:
While additional digital archive sites exist, many of them use domain extensions headquartered outside of the United States. Internet Archive was started in San Francisco, California, in 1996. Kahle has been advocating for "universal access to all knowledge" through books, websites, and other forms of media for decades.
In addition to hacks, the archive group has faced several lawsuits in recent years. In 2020, major US book publishers sued the nonprofit over the Internet Archive's digital book lending scheme, alleging copyright infringement. Last year, a judge decided that the program breached the publishers' copyright. However, the foundation continues to contend that "controlled digital lending" is fair usage.
In 2023, Sony and Universal Music sued Internet Archive over their music archives, claiming copyright violation.
As per the developer’s status page, ChatGPT and its API have been experiencing "periodic outages" since November 8 at approximately noon PST.
According to the most recent update published on November 8 at 19.49 PST, OpenAI said, “We are dealing with periodic outages due to an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack. We are continuing work to mitigate this.”
While the application seemed to have been operating normally, a user of the API reported seeing a "429 - Too Many Requests" error, which is consistent with OpenAI's diagnosis of DDoS as the cause of the issue.
Hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan took to Telegram, claiming responsibility of the attacks.
The group claimed to have targeted OpenAI specifically because of its support for Israel, in addition to its stated goal of going against "any American company." The nation has recently been under heavy fire for bombing civilians in Palestine.
The partnership between OpenAI and the Israeli occupation state, as well as the CEO's declaration that he is willing to increase investment in Israel and his multiple meetings with Israeli authorities, including Netanyahu, were mentioned in the statement.
Additionally, it asserted that “AI is now being used in the development of weapons and by intelligence agencies like Mossad” and that “Israel is using ChatGPT to oppress the Palestinians.”
"ChatGPT has a general biasness towards Israel and against Palestine," continued Anonymous Sudan.
In what it described as retaliation for a Quran-burning incident near Turkey's embassy in Stockholm, the group claimed responsibility for DDoS assaults against Swedish companies at the beginning of the year.
Jake Moore, cybersecurity advisor to ESET Global, DDoS mitigation providers must continually enhance their services.
“Each year threat actors become better equipped and use more IP addresses such as home IoT devices to flood systems, making them more difficult to protect,” says Jake.
“Unfortunately, OpenAI remains one of the most talked about technology companies, making it a typical target for hackers. All that can be done to future-proof its network is to continue to expect the unexpected.”
The vulnerabilities were found by experts working for SaiFlow, a company based in Israel that specializes in defending EV charging infrastructure and distributed energy resources.
The security loopholes are linked to the communications between the charging system management service (CSMS) and the EV charge point (CP), especially using the Open Charge Port Protocol (OCPP). The loopholes are believed to affect the CSMS offered by various vendors.
The issue is associated with the use of WebSocket communications by the OCPP and how it handles multiple connections poorly. The protocol lacks knowledge about handling more than one CP connection at a time and threat actors can abuse this by opening a new connection to the CSMS. Another problem is related to what SaiFlow explains as a "weak OCPP authentication and chargers identities policy."
By opening a new connection to the CSMS on behalf of a charge point, the threat actor can impact the original connection to be shut down or become non-functional.
As per SailFlow, a threat actor can misuse the loopholes to deploy a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that destroys the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) network.
Besides this, if a threat actor can connect to CSMS, they may be able to get drivers' personal information, this includes payment card data, along with other sensitive data like server credentials.
Ron Tiberg-Shachar, co-founder and CEO of SaiFlow said "in particular configurations, if the charger approves unfamiliar driver identities, an attacker can manage to charge their vehicle without paying for it. Since the CSMS platforms are publicly accessible, it is possible for an attacker to hijack the connection remotely, without needing to gain credentials, access, or perform MITM attacks." Tiberg believes that it may be possible for an amateur hacker to launch an attack, even with scarce resources.
To conduct an attack, the hacker first needs to get a charger's identity. This identity generally has a standard structure, making it easier for hackers to enumerate the values of valid identifiers.
In the next stage, they need to get info on which CSMS platform the charger is connected to. According to experts, the CSMS URL can be found using services like Shodan or SecurityTrails.
SailFlow has made a technical blog post explaining the vulnerabilities and the attack scenarios. The company also gave recommendations for how these kinds of attacks can be controlled. It seems unlikely that vendors can easily patch the vulnerabilities.
Tiberg said, "we’ve approached many key players in the industry (and keep on doing so) to make them aware of our findings and how they can approach a solution. Additionally, we’ve made our solutions team available to support any specific technical questions, in an effort to reinforce vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. Our key goal is to support partners in scaling their charging infrastructure as quickly and safely as possible."
It is a platform for performing distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks) that primarily allows anyone to purchase and execute such attacks for free. Based on the software as a service (SaaS) business model, these services are lucrative because they allow the owner of an IoT botnet to conduct low-overhead attacks.