Seems like this attack was more "proof of concept" than "trial run." Recent reports (
Slashdot ) indicate that The "Internet of Things" was used as a botnet in at least part of the attack.
The Internet of things (IoT) is all those random devices that have Internet access. Now suppose that you have one of those fancy Samsung refrigerators that come with cameras connected to the Internet so you can see what's in the 'frige over your smart phone (
WHY??). I send malicious code to your 'frige and am in command of it (which, by the way, is easy compared to personal computers). I do this to a lot of them since they all run the same software, access to one gives you access to all. Now I command all of them to send requests to a particular DNS server over and over again. And if you take over enough devices you get what you got today.
IoT has long been known to have weak security so as more things get Internet access expect more if this.
-------------------------------------
Should explain. DNS stands for Domain Name Server. It is a network of servers that translate what you type in like "venturecomm.net" into the real Internet Provider (IP) address which in this case is 64.251.188.106
-------------------------------------
Hmm. Now it appears Wikileaks supporters may be the instigators of today's attack.
Hothardware 1. Wikileaks, well, leaks. It embarrasses Obama and Hillary.
2. Obama responds by getting Ecuador to cut Assange's Internet access. Yeah, that'll teach 'em!
3. Part of the Internet blows up.
Sorta reminiscent of red lines in Syria. The Man is effective!
