Top 5 DDoS attacks of all times

As per Eric Muntz from Keone Software, malware and data breaches are not the only risks website owners face these days. DDoS attacks can be devastating enough to destroy your business. Read this post to find about major DDoS attacks.

The GitHub attack of 2018

The GitHub attack of 2018 remains the largest DDoS attacks of all times and targeted at GitHub that is a popular site for code management on the internet. The attack reached heights when it commenced at a rate of 1.3Tbps and sent packets at a rate of 126.9 million per second. In this attack, there were no bonnets involved and the attackers took resort to amplification effect of the database coaching system known as Memcached. GitHub, learning from its previous attack in 2015 was using a DDoS security system and was alerted within 10 minutes of the attack and let the attack last for only twenty minutes.

The Dyn Attack

The Dyn attack which took place on October 2016 was initiated by a DNS operator and aimed at dismantling and disintegrating the major websites that included PayPal, Amazon, Airbnb, Visa, The New York Times, Netflix, GitHub, and Reddit. The malware that was primarily used to achieve this target is known by the name Mirai that is capable of creating botnet from the vulnerable devices that are linked to the internet such as webcams, printers, monitors and others of the same genre. To launch the attack, all these devices were programmed to provide requests to one single victim at a time. The attack did not last long and Dyn bounced back from its clutches within a single day.

The Mafiaboy attack

The Mafiaboy attack was launched in 2000 by a boy of fifteen years only who came to be known as mafiaboy and here’s where the name came from. The websites that were attacked included eBay, Yahoo, Dell, CNN, E-trade which formed to be the group of the major search engines of that time. This attack did not only disrupt the major internet services but also brought about havoc loss in the stock market. The cybercrime laws that exist today came into being after this DDos attack.

The Spamhaus Attack

The Spamhaus attack was conducted in 2013 and is hailed as one of the most dangerous and largest attacks. Spamhaus, as the first part of the name, suggests is an organization that helps to recognize and filter the spam e-mails received by a user because of which they stand as the most targeted company by the hackers who have the intention to launch their attacks through spam e-mails. The attack was conducted with a speed of 300gbps and immediately after the process began, Spamhaus signed up for Cloudware’s DDoS protection which played a major role in saving the organization. Even though it was unable to cause major impacts, but still dilapidated the normal functioning of LINX and London Internet Exchange.

The GitHub Attack

This 2015 DDos attack was mainly focused on GitHub and researches have proved that this move was encouraged as a result of political rivalry; this one of those attacks that lasted for a while and adapted itself with the already existing DDoS mitigation strategies of GitHub. The attack was brought about to be injecting unknown JavaScript codes into browsers of users who browsed through China’s most famous search engine, Baidu. The sites that were using Baidu were also infected by this malicious code and were meant to send HTTP requests to GitHub pages.