Web Hosting Firm Suffers Record 1Tbps DDoS Attack

French hosting company, OVH, has revealed that it suffered the largest known DDoS attack. On the 22nd September OVH admitted that they had been to subjected to a DDoS onslaught that shattered the previous record attack against Spam Nation author, Brian Krebs and his website krebsonsecurity.com.

According to OVH founder and CTO Octave Klaba, the DDoS attack hit 990 Gbps at its peak. Of the IoT devices engaged to take part in the DDoS barrage, the majority were CCTV cameras and DVRs. These devices are often improperly configured which leaves them open to hijacking by malware and which enables hackers to use them for destructive attacks. Klaba claims that over 150,000 different devices were involved in the DDoS attack. http://hothardware.com/news/latest-iot-ddos-attack-dwarfs-krebs-takedown-at-nearly-1-terabyte-per-second

This latest attack is disturbing for its scale but also because OVH offer anti-DDoS services themselves. OVH claim to have 930,000 customers who put their trust in their ability to perform. In the words of their CTO:

“It's not a question of knowing if you need anti-DDoS protection but rather when you will first be the victim of an attack. OVH is committed to protecting your project 24/7 against any type of DDoS attack, regardless of duration or size." https://www.ovh.com/us/anti-ddos/

The number of IoT devices will increase with the number of DdoS attacks. As we rush to buy internet connected devices we risk enlarging the already existing zombie botnets that are used to crash websites and send spam mail. Readers will need to identify reliable service providers to safeguard their websites and businesses but also must play their part in ensuring that they engage best practices when securing their IoT devices.