We're familiar with DDoS attacks, which are "Distributed Denial of Service" attacks, but there's a new form of attack that's been happening online lately. It's called PDoS, or "Permanent Denial of Service," which actually bricks the device, destroying it permanently. The rationale is that if these devices weren't bricked, someone else would use it for a DDoS attack.
A Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDOS) hit the internet yesterday, tossing several networks offline. Leo says this happens all the time as robot computers are drafted to clog networks with phoney requests. What's disturbing about this particular attack is that it's using not only computers, but it's taking advantage of smart devices used in the home (called the internet of things), like routers, DVRs, smart refrigerators, and even internet enabled home security systems.
Tyler does a lot of social media through YouTube and Twitch and he's been hit by a DDoS attack. Leo says that those attacks are easy and are usually done by a troll who has an axe to grind. But they can't go after Twitch, so he's attacking his personal IP address. Leo says to call the ISP and request a new address. Running through a VPN will prevent it since it's an encrypted tunnel and they can't see the IP.
Last week, Chinese hackers targeted GreatFire.org in a DDoS attack, and now are attacking GitHub. DDoS stands for "Distributed Denial of Service," and this attack brings down a website by hitting it with lots of bogus requests from thousands or even tens of thousands of computers distributed all over the world. GreatFire.org was spending $30,000 a day in bandwidth trying to keep up with the excess traffic.
The way they are getting this to be a distributed attack is by commandeering users of Baidu, a popular search engine in China.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is now attempting to take disrupt downloads from sites that have its leaked data through Denial of Service attacks. Its using hundreds of computers in Asia to accomplish this.
A few days after Facebook spent $19 billion on the smartphone app WhatsApp, a possible denial of service attack (DDoS) threw it off line for several hours. Leo says that the cost of WhatsApp is "stupid money" that Facebook has, and they can spend on dumb acquisitions and not suffer for it. Meanwhile, former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said the deal is "everything that is wrong with our economy." Leo says that Reich really doesn't understand technology or the Internet.
