3 replies to this topic

[Frac_Man]

I'm finding it difficult to open up financial sites or they are very slow ? anyone else experiencing this is the past couple of days including today ? Hank

[mdwllc]

I'm finding it difficult to open up financial sites or they are very slow ?

anyone else experiencing this is the past couple of days including today ?

Hank

Yes:

DoS is a common exploit where hackers do not want to steal information, just deny users access to it or services. This is a big deal with both weapons systems and financial markets.



Most worms are a basic DoS tactic and what they do is self replicate to target and load a system beyond its capabilties. So someone is targeting these financial sites, and I would speculate its probably a foreign government doing something called discovery, looking for soft spots etc in the security architecture, and probably loading a back door into the system and the some of the finance guys don't even know it.



Here's the problem for those of us trying to surf. Make sure you consider changing any passwords or proprietary information, in case those web sites your visiting has been compromised.



Make sure that the site you log into is the actual site itself. Another tactic is for a hacker to host a similar looking site like the one you are used too, even in the URL which looks the same, but there is one additional character in it, that gives it away as fake.



MDW

[mdwllc]

I'm finding it difficult to open up financial sites or they are very slow ?

anyone else experiencing this is the past couple of days including today ?

Hank

Yes:

DoS is a common exploit where hackers do not want to steal information, just deny users access to it or services. This is a big deal with both weapons systems and financial markets.



Most worms are a basic DoS tactic and what they do is self replicate to target and load a system beyond its capabilties. So someone is targeting these financial sites, and I would speculate its probably a foreign government doing something called discovery, looking for soft spots etc in the security architecture, and probably loading a back door into the system and the some of the finance guys don't even know it.



Here's the problem for those of us trying to surf. Make sure you consider changing any passwords or proprietary information, in case those web sites your visiting has been compromised.



Make sure that the site you log into is the actual site itself. Another tactic is for a hacker to host a similar looking site like the one you are used too, even in the URL which looks the same, but there is one additional character in it, that gives it away as fake.



MDW

Addendum coment: After I made my last post, I decided to run some scans on my computer just to make sure I hadn't picked up anything today; I regret to inform you that there were some "foreign matter" that I didn't have at the end of my scans this weekend. As a percaution, you might want to consider a scan of your own computer if you were surfing today. MDW

[Rogerdodger]

Last week there was "The most significant internet attack in 5 years."
One of these days we will get the "mother of all attacks".

Hackers Attack Key Net Traffic Computers
Feb 06 9:19 PM US/Eastern

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002. Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted as long as 12 hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines.

The Homeland Security Department confirmed it was monitoring what it called "anomalous" Internet traffic.

Link

Edited by Rogerdodger, 12 February 2007 - 04:41 PM.