Online gambling sites are bracing for a digital onslaught after the source code for a new type of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack was posted online.
On Saturday, digital security analyst Brian Krebs reported that the source code for a new Internet of Things (IoT) botnet that recently knocked his KrebsOnSecurity site offline had been posted to the HackForums hacking community on Friday.
The public release of the source code means that a great many more malicious individuals now have the ability to unleash the powerful new form of DDoS attacks that have so alarmed online security types since their appearance in recent months.
The so-called ‘Mirai’ network of around 233k IoT devices – security cameras, digital video recorders, etc. – is smaller than rival botnet Bashlight, which controls around 963k IoT devices. But Mirai is considered technically superior to Bashlight, and the fear is that hackers will continue to tinker with the code to both expand its arsenal of IoT devices and add new layers of sophistication.
The source code was uploaded to HackForums by a user identified as Anna-senpai, who claimed that he’d “made my money, there’s lots of eyes looking at IoT now, so it’s time to GTFO.”
Krebs believes that Anna-senpai was at least partially motivated by a desire to throw investigators off the track, or at least ensure that he/she wasn’t the only one in possession of the code when it came time to pin the blame on someone for DDoS ransom demands.
Online gambling sites – particularly sports betting sites, which cannot afford to be offline during the run-up to prominent sports events – remain among the top targets for DDoS attacks. Suffice it to say, security types tasked with protecting online sportsbooks will have their work cut out for them when the next Super Bowl rolls around.
