CASE STUDY - The Massive DDoS Attack on New Zealand Exchange(LIT. REVIEW)
LITERATURE REVIEW
DDoS attacks are very common and have increased more than 2.5 times between 2014 and 2017. Moreover, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index(VNI, 2017 cited by Crane 2019): "Global estimates of the total number of DDoS attacks are anticipated to double to 14.5 million by 2022".
The very first Denial of Service attack happened in 1974 by a 13-year-old student called David Dennis in which it was caused by his curiousity of wanting to know how a room full of users being locked out at once looked like(RADWARE, 2017). To satisfy his curiousity, Dennis wrote a program that sends "external" commands to many PLATO terminals at once. PLATO is a shared, educational computer system created by Donald L. Bitzer in 1960 which was used as a successful teaching tool(Jones, 2015). Moreover, The 'external' or 'ext' command is a command which allows external devices within the terminal to interact, however in the case of non-existent external devices, this would cause a lock-up to the terminal which would lead to its restart in order to regain functionality(Jones, 2015).
When tested, the program succeeded in forcibly logging off 31 users at once(RADWARE, 2017).
Some similar, significant DDoS attacks that occurred previously include the attack on August 1999, in which a tool called 'Trinoo' was used by a hacker to shut-down the University of Minnesota's computer network, which lasted for around two days(RADWARE, 2017).
Later on in 2002, Michael Calce launched a DDoS crashing some vital websites such as CNN and eBay(Weisman, 2020). Another similar incident is 2016 Dyn, in which a major DNS provider was attacked taking down major sites and services such as AirBnB and PayPal(Weisman, 2020).
Accordingly, the UK National lottery was targeted by a DDoS campaign on the 30th of September in 2017 which forced both the mobile app and the website down for a while(BISSON, 2017).
The DDoS attacks have evolved and are continuing to do so, however, a report by a research firm estimates that the current amount of 2.4 billion dollars in 2019 is estimated to approximately double up to 4.7 Billion by 2024 in the DDoS protection and mitigation market(Crane, 2019). This eventually leads us to the current DDoS attack occurring in 2020 which targeted the NZX.
Reference(s):
Crane, C., (2019). The 15 Top Ddos Statistics You Should Know In 2020. [online] Cybercrime Magazine. Available at: <https://cybersecurityventures.com/the-15-top-ddos-statistics-you-should-know-in-2020/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
RADWARE, (2017). Ddos Attack History | Radware Security. [online] Security.radware.com. Available at: <https://security.radware.com/ddos-knowledge-center/ddos-chronicles/ddos-attacks-history/#:~:text=%20History%20of%20DDoS%20Attacks%20%201%20The,the%201Tbps%20DDoS%20era.%20Check%20out...%20More%20> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Jones, S., (2015). PLATO : Computer-Based Education System. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/topic/PLATO-education-system> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Kroeker, K., (2010). Celebrating The Legacy Of Plato. [image] Available at: <https://cacm.acm.org/system/assets/0000/3424/072010_CACMpg19_Celebrating-the-Legacy.large.jpg?1476779407&1279552059> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Weisman, S., (2020). What Is A Ddos Attack?. [online] Us.norton.com. Available at: <https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-a-ddos-attack-30sectech-by-norton.html> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
BISSON, D., 2017. 5 Notable Ddos Attacks Of 2017. [online] The State of Security. Available at: <https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/featured/5-notable-ddos-attacks-2017/> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
PETTERS, J., (2020). What Is A Distributed Denial Of Service (Ddos) Attack? | Varonis. [online] Inside Out Security. Available at: <https://www.varonis.com/blog/what-is-a-ddos-attack/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
Hulme, G., (2020). Ddos Explained: How Distributed Denial Of Service Attacks Are Evolving. [online] CSO Online. Available at: <https://www.csoonline.com/article/3222095/ddos-explained-how-denial-of-service-attacks-are-evolving.html> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
The very first Denial of Service attack happened in 1974 by a 13-year-old student called David Dennis in which it was caused by his curiousity of wanting to know how a room full of users being locked out at once looked like(RADWARE, 2017). To satisfy his curiousity, Dennis wrote a program that sends "external" commands to many PLATO terminals at once. PLATO is a shared, educational computer system created by Donald L. Bitzer in 1960 which was used as a successful teaching tool(Jones, 2015). Moreover, The 'external' or 'ext' command is a command which allows external devices within the terminal to interact, however in the case of non-existent external devices, this would cause a lock-up to the terminal which would lead to its restart in order to regain functionality(Jones, 2015).
When tested, the program succeeded in forcibly logging off 31 users at once(RADWARE, 2017).
(Carina Sweet, Computer History Museum, n.d. cited from Kroeker 2010)
Later on in 2002, Michael Calce launched a DDoS crashing some vital websites such as CNN and eBay(Weisman, 2020). Another similar incident is 2016 Dyn, in which a major DNS provider was attacked taking down major sites and services such as AirBnB and PayPal(Weisman, 2020).
Accordingly, the UK National lottery was targeted by a DDoS campaign on the 30th of September in 2017 which forced both the mobile app and the website down for a while(BISSON, 2017).
The DDoS attacks have evolved and are continuing to do so, however, a report by a research firm estimates that the current amount of 2.4 billion dollars in 2019 is estimated to approximately double up to 4.7 Billion by 2024 in the DDoS protection and mitigation market(Crane, 2019). This eventually leads us to the current DDoS attack occurring in 2020 which targeted the NZX.
Reference(s):
Crane, C., (2019). The 15 Top Ddos Statistics You Should Know In 2020. [online] Cybercrime Magazine. Available at: <https://cybersecurityventures.com/the-15-top-ddos-statistics-you-should-know-in-2020/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
RADWARE, (2017). Ddos Attack History | Radware Security. [online] Security.radware.com. Available at: <https://security.radware.com/ddos-knowledge-center/ddos-chronicles/ddos-attacks-history/#:~:text=%20History%20of%20DDoS%20Attacks%20%201%20The,the%201Tbps%20DDoS%20era.%20Check%20out...%20More%20> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Jones, S., (2015). PLATO : Computer-Based Education System. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/topic/PLATO-education-system> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Kroeker, K., (2010). Celebrating The Legacy Of Plato. [image] Available at: <https://cacm.acm.org/system/assets/0000/3424/072010_CACMpg19_Celebrating-the-Legacy.large.jpg?1476779407&1279552059> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
Weisman, S., (2020). What Is A Ddos Attack?. [online] Us.norton.com. Available at: <https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-a-ddos-attack-30sectech-by-norton.html> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
BISSON, D., 2017. 5 Notable Ddos Attacks Of 2017. [online] The State of Security. Available at: <https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/featured/5-notable-ddos-attacks-2017/> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
PETTERS, J., (2020). What Is A Distributed Denial Of Service (Ddos) Attack? | Varonis. [online] Inside Out Security. Available at: <https://www.varonis.com/blog/what-is-a-ddos-attack/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
Hulme, G., (2020). Ddos Explained: How Distributed Denial Of Service Attacks Are Evolving. [online] CSO Online. Available at: <https://www.csoonline.com/article/3222095/ddos-explained-how-denial-of-service-attacks-are-evolving.html> [Accessed 24 November 2020].
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