{"id":126364,"date":"2025-04-03T04:15:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T04:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=126364"},"modified":"2025-04-03T04:15:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T04:15:56","slug":"ddos-attacks-now-a-dominant-means-of-waging-political-cyber-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=126364","title":{"rendered":"DDoS attacks now a dominant means of waging political cyber-warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsDistributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are outpacing many traditional cyber threats and are no longer just a tool but a \u201cdominant geopolitical weapon,\u201d according to network security firm Netscout.<br \/>\nGlobal DDoS activity increased by 12.7% in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half, totaling almost 9 million attacks, according to the firm.\u00a0<br \/>\nA DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal web traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic.<br \/>\nThe largest increases have been in Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions, with around 30% and 20% increases from the first half, respectively.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nNetscout reported that there were a total of 7.9 million DDoS attacks in the first half of 2024, with a combined total of 16.8 million for the full year, up almost 30% from the 13 million attacks the firm recorded in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nAttackers have been using the internet disruption tool to \u201cexploit moments of national vulnerability to amplify chaos and erode trust in institutions,\u201d the researchers said.<br \/>\nThe report described DDoS attacks as \u201cprecision-guided digital weapons\u201d capable of disrupting infrastructure at critical moments, highlighting how they have been deployed during sociopolitical conflicts, elections, protests and policy disputes.<br \/>\nWeekly DDoS statistics, 2024. Source: NetscoutAI is supercharging DDoS attacks\u00a0<br \/>\nDDoS-for-hire services, including booters and stressors, are \u201cmore powerful than ever,\u201d they added, as cyber criminals leverage AI and automation to bypass CAPTCHA, with automation \u201cadvancing toward capabilities such as behavior mimicry and real-time attack adjustments.\u201d<br \/>\nThe researchers concluded that DDoS attacks \u201care no longer just about raw bandwidth,\u201d adding that they are \u201cadaptive, persistent, and deeply embedded in modern cyber\u00a0and geopolitical conflicts.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThe shift to high-powered enterprise infrastructure, turnkey reconnaissance, the rise of\u00a0AI-enhanced automation and the expansion of DDoS-for-hire services mean that attackers\u00a0are evolving faster than ever.\u201d<br \/>\nThe role of DDoS attacks is evolving, Corero Network Security chief technology officer Ashley Stephenson told Forbes recently, adding, \u201cBy automating tasks that were once labor-intensive or required specialized skills, AI lowers the barrier to entry for attackers.\u201d<br \/>\nRelated: Crypto crime in 2024 likely exceeded $51B, far higher than reported: Chainalysis<br \/>\nA DDoS attack targeted Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform X in August, aimed at disrupting his interview with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.\u00a0<br \/>\nX was targeted again in March when a massive cyberattack prevented some users from accessing the platform.\u00a0<br \/>\nA hacking group with ties to Russia called \u201cDark Storm\u201d claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack on Musk\u2019s platform, claiming that it was not politically motivated.\u00a0<br \/>\nMagazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over \u2014 It\u2019s time to dream big again<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ddo-s-attacks-dominant-means-waging-political-cyber-warfare-netscout?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsDistributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are outpacing many traditional cyber threats and are no longer just a tool but a \u201cdominant geopolitical weapon,\u201d according to network security firm Netscout.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126364"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}