Cloudflare has claimed to have recently mitigated the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in history.
In a company blog post, Cloudflare outlined how, throughout September 2024, an unnamed threat actor targeted multiple customers in the financial services, internet, and telecommunication industries, among others.
Without naming any specific targets, Cloudflare said that the attack campaign targeted bandwidth saturation, as well as resource exhaustion of in-line applications and devices.
Bots across the world
The attack included “over one hundred hyper-volumetric L3/4 DDoS attacks”, many of which exceeded 2 billion packets per second (Bpps), and 3 terabits per second (Tbps).
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A hyper-volumetric L3/4 DDoS attack is a type of DDoS attack targeting layers 3 (network) and 4 (transport) of the OSI model (framework that standardizes network communication). It overwhelms the target’s bandwidth or network infrastructure with massive amounts of traffic, often using techniques like UDP floods or TCP SYN floods. The goal is to exhaust the resources of the target system, making it unavailable to legitimate users.
Of all the attacks, one stood out – when it peaked at 3.8 Tbps. This is, according to Cloudflare, “the largest ever disclosed publicly by any organization.” It predominantly leveraged UDP on a fixed port, the company said, and originated from across the globe. The majority of the endpoints used in the attack came from Vietnam, Russia, Brazil, Spain, and the US.
Detection and mitigation was all automatic, Cloudflare says. It added that the key reason why it was able to tackle it was because the company has servers across the world, which essentially water down incoming botnet traffic.
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Generally, DDoS attacks are done via botnets – vast networks of compromised endpoints such as routers, smart home devices, and similar. These attacks included traffic from MikroTik devices, DVRs, and web servers, as well as compromised ASUS home routers, which were likely exploited using a CVE 9.8 (Critical) vulnerability that was recently discovered by Censys.
Before this one, the largest-ever observed DDoS attack was 3.47 Tbps strong, and was mitigated by Microsoft in November 2021.
A new AI-powered video generator from Meta produces high-definition footage complete with sound, the company announced today. The announcement comes several months after competitor OpenAI unveiled Sora, its text-to-video model — though public access to Movie Gen isn’t happening yet.
Movie Gen uses text inputs to automatically generate new videos, as well as edit existing footage or still images. The New York Times reports that the audio added to videos is also AI-generated, matching the imagery with ambient noise, sound effects, and background music. The videos can be generated in different aspect ratios.
In addition to generating new clips, Meta says Movie Gen can also create custom videos from images or take an existing video and change different elements of it. One example shared by the company shows a still headshot of a woman; the added video depicts her sitting in a pumpkin patch sipping a drink.
A still from a video produced using Meta’s Movie Gen.Image: Meta
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Movie Gen can also be used to edit existing footage and change the style and transitions or add things that didn’t previously exist. In one example shared by Meta, a relatively innocuous video of what appears to be an illustrated runner is edited using AI in different ways: in one frame, he’s holding pompoms. In another, the background has been edited to depict a desert. In a third, the runner is wearing a dinosaur costume. Changes can be made using text prompts.
Nearly two years after powerful AI image and video generators hit the mainstream, AI companies have pushed the technology further: in just the last six months, major tech companies like Google and OpenAI are working on similar tools, along with smaller startups. OpenAI’s Sora, first announced in February, still hasn’t launched publicly; this week, a co-lead working on the video generator left the company for Google.
Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, writes on Threads that the company “[isn’t] ready to release this as a product anytime soon,” as it’s still expensive and generation time is too long.
Creatives like filmmakers, photographers, artists, writers, and actors also worry about how AI generators will affect their livelihoods, and AI has been a central part of several strikes, including the historic joint Hollywood strikes by the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) last year.
CrowdStrike, a global leader in endpoint security, incident response and cybersecurity, recently deployed an update to its Falcon sensor for Microsoft Windows systems. This update, designed to enhance the detection of novel threats, inadvertently caused significant malfunctions in the Windows operating system, leading to widespread crashes and system instability.
Notably, Mac and Linux operating systems were unaffected by this issue.
Keatron Evans
VP for Portfolio and Product Strategy, Instructor & Author at Infosec.
What happened?
Despite concerns, it’s important to clarify that this incident was not the result of a hack, security breach, or malicious attack. Here are three key factors that led to the CrowdStrike chaos:
Faulty internal update: The problem stemmed from an internal update error rather than external tampering.
Elevated privileges: As security software, CrowdStrike Falcon has high privileges and integrates with the Microsoft Windows kernel.
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Global impact: The impact was particularly severe because CrowdStrike’s software is deeply integrated into critical infrastructure across large corporations and government agencies.
This integration, while essential for detecting and neutralizing high-level threats, also meant that when the faulty update was rolled out, it led to immediate and widespread disruptions.
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The impact
CrowdStrike is widely used among enterprises and state, local and federal government agencies, so the scale of the disruption was enormous. Delta Airlines, for instance, has engaged high-profile attorney David Boise as they face potential losses exceeding $300 million due to the incident. While many other organizations of similar size recovered within hours, Delta experienced prolonged operational disruptions lasting several days, sparking industry debate over whether the fault lay with CrowdStrike’s update or Delta’s recovery plan and preparedness.
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This incident triggered what may be the largest technology outage on record to date, caused by a misconfiguration or bug, with estimated damages reaching into the billions — and that figure continues to climb. The fallout was massive, thousands of flights delayed or cancelled, halting reservation systems worldwide, and causing a cascade of global disruptions. At least 8.5 million computers were affected, leading to unprecedented operational chaos
It is indeed ironic that CrowdStrike, a company renowned for its expertise in incident response, found itself at the center of such a significant episode. This event underscores the complexities and challenges even the most well-regarded firms can face, as well as the recovery plans and response preparedness.
CrowdStrike’s response
In the face of this unprecedented incident, CrowdStrike responded with prompt and decisive action. The company swiftly deployed a fix to address the issue and subsequently released a statement outlining a series of commitments aimed at preventing a recurrence. While the list of actions was thorough and comprehensive, much of it aligned with existing industry-standard practices. However, CrowdStrike notably pledged to revise its update deployment processes, a critical change expected to enhance the reliability and safety of future updates.
Observations and lessons learned
The CrowdStrike outage serves as a reminder for all size organizations to review their processes and ensure steps are in place to help mitigate the impact of future incidents. Not only having a plan, but have it tested for functionality.
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Among steps for action that organizations need to have set are:
1. Ensure Robust Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans: Seems simple, but it’s crucial to have well-defined backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery plans in place. Equally important is the regular testing of these plans through actual walkthroughs to ensure they function effectively when needed.
2. Be Cautious with Privileged Software: Any software with privileged access to your systems can potentially cause significant disruptions. While this incident was not a security breach, it serves as a stark reminder that even security tools can introduce vulnerabilities. Security tools, like any other software, can be a source of breaches or downtime, as demonstrated by this incident with CrowdStrike.
3. Maintain Heightened Vigilance During Outages: Large-scale outages create an attractive opportunity for attackers. Amid the noise and disruption, malicious actors can easily slip in undetected and steal data. It is essential to maintain heightened security awareness during such events to prevent opportunistic exploitation.
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4. Avoid Knee-Jerk Reactions: While the instinct may be to switch vendors after an incident like this, it’s important to proceed with caution. Quick, unplanned changes can lead to even bigger problems. Any transition to a new vendor should be approached as a phased project, not an overnight swap. This is especially critical for organizations handling sensitive data, such as those involved in national security.
In conclusion, the CrowdStrike incident highlights the importance of robust systems, cautious planning, and the readiness to respond to even the most unexpected challenges.
This has become a reminder that in the realm of cybersecurity, even the leaders in the field are not immune to significant disruptions, nor are they immune from causing them – but being ready for when these may happen may be the difference between swift resolution and loss of business.
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Sources and further readings for jobs and college degrees:
bls.gov(bureau of labor statistics)
nces.ed.gov(national center for educational statistics)
payscale(provides information on jobs and degrees)
https://thebestschools.org/rankings/best-online-bachelors-computer-engineering/
https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/056/#:~:text=%26%20Visualizations%20Next%20%3E%3E-,Synthetic%20Work%2DLife%20Earnings%20by%20Field%20of%20Bachelor’s%20Degree%20and,Attainment%20is%20a%20Bachelor’s%20Degree&text=A%20bachelor’s%20degree%20holder%20can,his%20or%20her%20work%20life
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/blog/the-most-regretted-college-majors/
https://www.monster.com/jobs/search/?q=Computer-Engineering-degree-job
https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/
https://www.fastweb.com/career-planning/articles/top-10-millionaires-majors .
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