Hackers May Use Home Routers for DDoS Attacks

According to security experts, the well-known hacking group Lizard Squad may have been using hacked home routers in order to run its LizardStresser service. The latter helps launch DDoS attacks to take online portals offline. The hackers started their LizardStresser a few weeks ago, shortly after their own attacks affected Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live services over Christmas.

The LizardStresser online service charges anyone between $6 and $500 to start their own attacks against any websites and services they want. The high-profile console attacks work as a large marketing scheme for the hackers’ commercial ambitions.

The industry experts believe that LizardStresser can run because many Internet users don’t change their default passwords on home routers. Apparently, the service draws on the bandwidth from the cracked home routers all over the world, because many of them are not protected by anything else except for factory-default usernames and passwords.

The security researchers point out that the malware used by the hackers with the purpose to build its network of “stresser bots” has been operating for about a year now, and is able to affect commercial routers at educational institutions and businesses, let alone households.

In the meantime, the security experts point out that aside from turning the infected host into attack zombies, the malware uses the infected system to scan the web for other devices that could allow access through the default credentials, like “admin/admin” or “login/password”. In other words, all infected hosts keep trying to spread the malware to other home Internet routers and other devices that are able to accept incoming connections (through telnet) with default settings.

A group of the researchers who desired to remain unnamed is currently cooperating with the law enforcement officials and Internet service providers in order to help take infected systems down. Their ultimate goal is to disrupt the LizardStresser botnet entirely.

While they are on their way to achieve their goal, all Internet users are recommended to make sure they changed the default credentials on their home broadband router, such as the username and password. In addition, it will appear useful to also encrypt the connection in case of using a wireless router.

Transatlantic Cyber War Games Are to Start Soon

The UK and US intelligence agencies are going to conduct transatlantic cyber “war games” in order to test their resilience to the global cyber attacks. The heads of the two countries have started negotiations on the topic and will announce that a simulated attack will target banks in the City of London and Wall Street later in 2015.

The simulated “war game” against the financial sector will be carried out with the help of specialists of the Bank of England and other financial institutions and coordinated by a new joint “cyber-cell” of the two countries. The latter will be created by agents from GCHQ and MI5 on the UK side and the NSA and the FBI on the US side.

The US and UK leaders do not underestimate the threat of Islamist extremists in Syria, Iraq and in Europe and the dangers represented by cyber-warfare. Obama pointed to the “urgent and growing danger” posed by cyber attacks, and the example was a recent attack on 

Sony

 Pictures. Previously, the president spoke of the need for a “shared mission” with the participation of the government and the private sector. Considering that most of the “critical infrastructure” of the United States is owned by the private sector and runs on networks connected to the Internet, the conclusion can be made that neither the government nor the private sector can defend the nation alone.

Cooperation between the US and the UK is supposed to pool their effort and allow them stay one step ahead of those who seek to attack. The heads of the states believe that the joint exercises and training of the next generation of cyber experts may ensure that the countries have the capability required to protect critical sectors like energy, transport and financial infrastructure from the potential threats.

In the meantime, David Cameron has some questions to ask Obama and will apparently press him to influence the tech giants, including 

Facebook

 and Twitter, to intensify their efforts in cooperating with the intelligence agencies, which want to monitor the communications of suspected terrorists. David Cameron has announced his plans a few days ago to build a stronger legal framework that would allow intelligence agencies to break into encrypted communications of the suspects, but he needs support of the US-based companies, including the largest social media websites.