DDoS

Stopping DDoS Attacks at the Network Edge

1 min read

We’ve been talking a lot about security this week with the announcement of the Firepower 9300 and how we’re helping to secure the Evolved Programmable Network.  Earlier posts talked about the security threat, the challenge to video delivery networks, and what steps we’re taking to for both DDoS mitigation and security in general. Part of […]

February 19, 2014

SECURITY

Cisco Hosting Amsterdam 2014 FIRST Technical Colloquium

1 min read

The registration is now open and there is still time left to respond to the call for papers for the upcoming FIRST Technical Colloquium April 7-8, 2014. Please contact us at amsterdam-tc@first.org for speaker engagements. The event already has an exciting preliminary program covering: Savvy Attribution in the DNS – Using DNS to Geo-locate Malicious […]

January 24, 2014

PERSPECTIVES

Enterprise Security: Include DDoS Mitigation in your 2014 Plans

2 min read

2014 will be a pivotal year for Enterprise Security professionals. Large scale Denial of Service ( DoS ) and Distributed Denial of Service attacks ( DDoS ) have been increasing over the years, which is nothing new. As technology evolves, including faster machines and cheaper bandwidth, attacks will also evolve just as fast if not […]

January 10, 2014

SECURITY

When Network Clocks Attack

3 min read

In October 2013, Cisco TRAC discussed Network Time Protocol (NTP) as a possible vector for amplified distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Litnet CERT has since revealed that their NTP servers were used in a denial of service (DoS) attack. Symantec also published information regarding an NTP amplification-based DDoS attack that occurred in December 2013. On December 7, 2013, a hackforums.net user posted an NTP amplification DDoS script to Pastebin. The NTP DDoS script is heavily obfuscated Perl, though the plain text at the top credits the "leaking" of the script to an individual who goes by the handle Starfall. Brian Krebs also mentioned someone going by the name Starfall as a paying user of booter.tw. They may be the same person.

December 16, 2013

SECURITY

Our Unofficial Top Ten Cyber Trends for 2014

6 min read

(I pulled this list together with the help of my colleague Martin Chorich. Or maybe it was the other way around. ) Every year, publications ranging from supermarket tabloids to serious academic journals issue forecasts for the coming year. Those with foresight hold on to these articles and read them again the following December for […]

October 25, 2013

SECURITY

A Smorgasbord of Denial of Service

4 min read

On October 22, 2013, Cisco TRAC Threat Researcher Martin Lee wrote about Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that leverage the Domain Name System (DNS) application protocol. As Martin stated, the wide availability of DNS open resolvers combined with attackers’ ability to falsify the source of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets creates a persistent threat […]

July 17, 2013

SECURITY

Network Solutions Customer Site Compromises and DDoS

1 min read

Network Solutions is a domain name registrar that manages over 6.6 million domains. As of July 16, 2013, the Network Solutions website is under a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Recently, Network Solutions has been a target for attackers; in a previous outage, domain name servers were redirected away from their proper IP addresses. This […]

July 8, 2013

SECURITY

Cisco Live USA 2013: Recap from a Network Security Engineer

3 min read

Having just returned home to New Jersey from Cisco Live US in Orlando, Florida, I thought I’d share my experiences as a Network Security Engineer both attending and presenting at this year’s conference. There were approximately 20,000 attendees at this year’s conference, which I believe set a new Cisco Live attendance record! Considering the huge size […]

May 7, 2013

SECURITY

The Effects of #OpUSA

2 min read

In the days leading up to #OpUSA, security professionals were busy making preparations for the supposed flood of new attacks coming on 7 May 2013. As we mentioned on 1 May 2013, publicly announced attacks of this nature can have highly volatile credibility. In some cases, the announcements exist only for the purpose of gaining notoriety. In […]