Neustar highlights rise in ransom-related DDoS attacks and greater use of existing attack vectors
Extortion demands grew in 2020, as cyber criminals targeted new online industries Neustar, Inc., a global information services and technology company and leader in identity resolution, has today published its report entitled Cyber Threats and Trends: Pandemic Style , detailing the security risks faced by companies as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital revolution.
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Figure 1: Percentage change in number of attacks by size category, 2020 vs. 2019 (Graphic: Business Wire)
Informed by data from Neustar s Security Operations Center (SOC), the report reveals a 154 percent increase in the number of attacks between 2019 and 2020, with growth in ransom-related DDoS (RDDoS) attacks and a rise in use of existing attack vectors, including web applications
Windows RDP servers are being abused to amplify DDoS attacks
Windows RDP servers running on UDP port 3389 can be ensnared in DDoS botnets and abused to bounce and amplify junk traffic towards victim networks.
January 22, 2021 05:30 GMT (21:30 PST) | Topic: Security
Cybercrime gangs are abusing Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) systems to bounce and amplify junk traffic as part of DDoS attacks, security firm Netscout said in an alert on Tuesday.
Not all RDP servers can be abused, but only systems where RDP authentication is also enabled on UDP port 3389 on top of the standard TCP port 3389.
Netscout said that attackers can send malformed UDP packets to the UDP ports of RDP servers that will be reflected to the target of a DDoS attack, amplified in size, resulting in junk traffic hitting the target s system.
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