Hackers Planning to Take Down the Internet

Hackers are planning one of their most advanced cyber attacks ever to take down the internet.

Renowned online security expert Bruce Schneier has warned that hackers have stepped up cyber attacks against the key organizations whose job it is to keep the internet online.

These sophisticated cyber attacks are part of a campaign to cause widespread disruption to the internet and major online services. Schneier is now warning organizations of the need to step up their security protection in order to ensure the world has access to the internet and that important online services remain intact.

The security specialist issued his warning after what he says is a huge increase in cyber attacks on those organizations responsible for key online infrastructure. Schneier says the attacks are “precisely calibrated” and are believed to have originated from either Russia or China. Hackers are carrying out a series of sustained DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks to knock key infrastructure offline.

The DDoS attacks carried out by the hackers are “significantly larger” and they last longer than previous attempts. The hackers seem to be trying to find out exactly what kind of security systems are in place, with different attacks targeting different systems.

Schneier said that he couldn’t give details because the companies spoke with him under conditions of anonymity.

But it is consistent with what Verisign is reporting. “Verisign is the registrar for many popular top-level Internet domains, like .com and .net. If it goes down, there would be a global blackout of all websites and e-mail addresses. Every quarter, Verisign publishes a DDoS trends report. While its publication doesn’t have the level of detail I heard from the companies I spoke with, the trends are the same: in Q2 2016, attacks continued to become more frequent, persistent, and complex.”

Mr. Schneier also noted that the amount of data used in the attacks is increasing. “Someone is extensively testing the core defensive capabilities of the companies that provide critical internet services,” said Schneier. If that wasn’t bad enough, Schneier says that nothing can be done to stop the cyber attacks. “This is happening and people should know” Schneier added.

CLICK HERE to read the blog post from Schneier discussing the attacks.