Internet Companies Report Largest-Ever Denial of Service Attack
Internet Giants Under Attack
Internet companies Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare have successfully defended against the internet’s largest-known denial of service attack. However, they are warning of a new technique that could potentially cause widespread disruption. The attack, which began in late August and is ongoing, was described as three times larger than any previous attack observed by Cloudflare. Google reported parrying an avalanche of rogue traffic that was more than seven times the size of the previous record-breaking attack.
The Power of Denial of Service Attacks
Denial of service attacks overwhelm targeted servers with a flood of bogus data requests, rendering legitimate web traffic impossible. These attacks have evolved over time and can now generate millions of requests per second. The recent attacks faced by Google, Cloudflare, and Amazon were capable of generating hundreds of millions of requests per second. To make matters worse, these supersized attacks were made possible by a vulnerability in the HTTP/2 network protocol.
The Call for Action
All three companies are urging web server owners to update their systems to protect against this vulnerability. Failure to do so could leave servers vulnerable to future attacks. The identity of the attackers responsible for these denial of service attacks remains unknown, as they are notoriously difficult to trace.
Potential for Disruption
While these attacks were successfully countered, if not properly addressed, they could lead to widespread disruption. In 2016, a similar attack caused a significant disruption to high-profile websites. The U.S. government’s cybersecurity watchdog, CISA, has not yet commented on the recent attacks.
It is crucial for companies to stay vigilant and take appropriate measures to protect against the ever-evolving threat landscape of denial of service attacks.
