<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="DDoS botnets are a bigger threat than we think" height="470" src="https://content2.stormwall.network/or/articles/5-1643709805718.jpg" width="600" /></p>

<p>In August 2021, StormWall experts exposed the most powerful botnet in the world. Capable of 2 terabits per second attacks, it consists of 49 thousand infected servers.</p>

StormWall experts managed to expose the most powerful botnet in the world, which consists of 49 thousand infected servers.

Hidden Threats of DDoS Botnets | StormWall

<p><em>7 october 2021</em></p>

<h1>DDoS Botnets Are a Bigger Threat Than We Think</h1>

<p>In August 2021, StormWall experts exposed the most powerful botnet in the world. Capable of 2 terabits per second attacks, it consists of 49 thousand infected servers. It is so strong, that unless you&rsquo;re Amazon or Google, you just can&rsquo;t defend against it with in-house protection measures.</p>

<p>Actually, consider this for a second: the Mirai botnet was about half as powerful, and in 2016, it took down the internet in Liberia. Yes, in the whole country. Some estimates suggest it caused over 100 million US dollars worth of damage.</p>

<p>Now, here comes the kicker. The botnet we discovered? Anyone can rent it. The pricing starts at $2500.</p>

<p><img alt="" height="704" src="https://content2.stormwall.pro/or/articles/5-1643709932003.jpg" width="900" /></p>

<p>That means that anybody willing to part with that amount of money could potentially leave a whole country, most vital government and emergency infrastructure included, without internet connection, causing nationwide mayhem and millions in damage. Literally anyone in the world. It&rsquo;s a scary thought, isn&rsquo;t it?</p>

DDoS Botnets Are a Bigger Threat Than We Think

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="The impact of DDoS attacks on crypto exchanges" height="470" src="https://content2.stormwall.network/or/articles/3-1643710098109.jpg" width="600" /></p>

<p>Exchanges are a vital part of the cryptocurrency industry. But, usually having a centralized architecture, they are also some of the most vulnerable services in the world of digital currencies.</p>

Even moderate DDoS attacks can lead to sharp drops of trading volume. Coordinated DDoS attacks can cause global disruptions to crypto prices.

DDoS Attacks on Crypto Exchanges in 2021 | StormWall

<p><em>4 october 2021</em></p>

<h1>The Impact of DDoS Attacks on Crypto Exchanges</h1>

<p><br />
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano strive to compete with other forms of digital payments, like credit/debit cards, or PayPal. Some believe that cryptocurrency will eventually become the main means of value exchange. In other words, one day,&nbsp;<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-vs-fiat-global-finance-2050-crypto-experts-finder-2021-7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">crypto might replace government-issued money</a>.</p>

<p>Indeed, the rate of adoption of this technology has been staggering. For example, In 2014, only 1.4 million people used crypto wallets &mdash; a type of software designed to store digital currencies like Bitcoin. By August 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/647374/worldwide-blockchain-wallet-users/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the number of crypto wallet users reached 71 million</a>.</p>

<p>But if cryptocurrencies are going to become the backbone of the worldwide economy, they must be technologically indestructible.</p>

<p>And, while the decentralized nature of blockchain does provide a degree of protection, it does not guarantee cyber security. In reality, cryptocurrency ecosystems almost always rely on centralized intermediaries. Namely &mdash; crypto exchanges.</p>

<p>Exchanges provide liquidity, allowing users to swap one currency for another, crypto or otherwise. They are paramount for enabling digital currencies to become part of the world economy. However, most exchanges are centralized, and thus, vulnerable to DDoS and other forms of cyberattacks.</p>

<p>Let&rsquo;s take a look at 3 ways, how DDoS attacks can impact crypto exchanges.</p>

<h2>1. Even moderate DDoS attacks can lead to sharp drops of trading volume</h2>

<p>Some forms of trading require instant reaction times, where even milestones matter. As the trading platform becomes less responsive under DDoS, traders become reluctant to place orders. Trading volume declines. What&rsquo;s more,&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/3/2/137/4831474" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the volume becomes less skewed</a>, as the number of large trades decreases comparatively to the number of small and medium trades.</p>

<p>For exchanges, whose business model is based on taking a commission from every trade, this means sustaining financial losses for the duration of the DDoS attack.</p>

<h2>2. Powerful DDoS attacks can cause complete platform downtime</h2>

<p>If the network flood is strong enough, it can outright overwhelm the exchange&rsquo;s servers, taking down its website. Quite obviously, trading activity comes to a halt.</p>

<p>Funds of the users, who trusted the platform become inaccessible while the attack persists, and traders miss market opportunities. This leads to repetitional damage, as traders might be reluctant to entrust their finance to an exchange, which makes them lose money.</p>

<h2>3. Coordinated DDoS attacks can cause global disruptions to crypto prices</h2>

<p>Cryptocurrency is well known for its volatility. As in any new market, asset prices can fluctuate violently in response to market conditions, news, or general sentiment of the community.</p>

<p>For example, on one occasion, a single Tweet by Elon Musk caused a nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/18/22441831/elon-musk-bitcoin-dogecoin-crypto-prices-tesla" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">10% price move of Bitcoin</a>. Unlike Musk&rsquo;s social activity, DDoS attacks normally don&rsquo;t impact the value of Digital Currencies. At least, not as isolated fast-passing events, which they usually are.</p>

<p>However,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/ddos-attacks-are-getting-more-powerful-as-attackers-change-tactics/#:~:text=The%20reason%20DDoS%20attacks%20are,parts%20of%20the%20victim's%20network.&amp;text=It%20means%20that%20the%20attacks,more%20difficult%2C%22%20Hummel%20explained." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DDoS attacks are becoming more powerful</a>, and if coordinated, might be able to take down several prominent crypto exchanges for weeks, paralyzing the liquidity of digital currencies, and, subsequently, affecting prices.</p>

<p><img alt="The impact of DDoS attacks on crypto exchanges" height="704" src="https://content2.stormwall.network/or/articles/3-1643710158356.jpg" width="900" /></p>

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

<p>Exchanges are a vital part of the cryptocurrency industry. But, usually having a centralized architecture, they are also some of the most vulnerable services in the world of digital currencies.</p>

<p>Thankfully, many of the risks carried by DDoS can be easily mitigated with a good <a href="https://stormwall.network/">DDoS&nbsp;protection service</a>.</p>

The Impact of DDoS Attacks on Crypto Exchanges

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="Different Types of DDoS Attacks" height="470" src="https://content2.stormwall.network/or/articles/2-1643709519853.jpg" width="600" /></p>

<p>Today there are many types of DDoS attacks. They differ in how they have been carried out and the characteristics of the parasitic traffic generated by the botnets. Any even the smallest business can fall victim to attackers. Reasons for DDoS attacks abound, from hunting for valuable information to deliberate financial damage or a simple test of the site&#39;s robustness.</p>

Many DDoS attacks are mixed in nature, but three main categories exist: volumetric attacks (floods), protocol attacks, and application-level DDoS attacks.

DDoS Attacks Types | StormWall

<p><em>14 october 2021</em></p>

<h1>Different Types of DDoS Attacks</h1>

<p>As companies evolve, they gain access to new technologies and face new threats. Today there are many types of DDoS attacks. They differ in how they have been carried out and the characteristics of the parasitic traffic generated by the botnets. Any even the smallest business can fall victim to attackers. Reasons for DDoS attacks abound, from hunting for valuable information to deliberate financial damage or a simple test of the site&#39;s robustness.</p>

<h2>Most Common Threats</h2>

<p>Over the past few years, cloud infrastructure has grown in popularity. Thousands of companies around the world, from small businesses to well-known corporations, rely on cloud services. They are the main target for hackers organizing attacks. These attacks disrupt servers by sending an excessive stream of requests to them. Resources not designed for high load simply stop working, and as a result, all users lose access to them. In addition, DDoS attacks exploit vulnerabilities at the level of network protocols and applications.</p>

<p>Cybercriminals surreptitiously use entire networks of infected devices as a source of attacks. Often the owners are unaware that their devices and IP addresses are involved in the attack. IoT devices are particularly suited for such purposes. Their number is constantly growing, but security is still low. Almost half of all DDoS attacks are mixed, but three main categories stand out:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Volumetric attacks (flood) - make a large number of requests to the server. The resulting traffic of up to several terabits per second overwhelms the entire bandwidth of the network, and soon the system stops responding to requests.</li>
	<li>Protocol attacks are a type of attack that exploits vulnerabilities in network protocols such as TCP, UDP, or ICMP. They overload the network with points actions.</li>
	<li>Application layer attacks target web servers and applications to incapacitate them. External requests provoke a large number of internal requests, resulting in server inaccessibility.</li>
</ul>

<p>There is a simplified classification based on the main protocols used to transfer data on the Internet. Most often, hackers exploit Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) vulnerabilities. Such a classification helps to identify trends.</p>

<p>Cybersecurity specialists can see which protocols get more spurious traffic and which get less. This makes it possible to adjust protection strategies and makes it easier to work on new filtering algorithms.</p>

<p><img alt="Different Types of DDoS Attacks" height="704" src="https://content2.stormwall.network/or/articles/2-1643709641058.jpg" width="900" /></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Fragmented UDP Flood</h2>

<p>Because of high efficiency, some methods are of particular interest to attackers. These include various types of flooding. For example, Fragmented UDP Flood with packets of maximum permissible size. When it is used, the channel is filled with the minimum number of falsified packets, which have nothing to do with real data. The attacked server starts to reserve resources to recover non-existent packets from fake fragments.</p>

<p>At a certain point, this leads to exhaustion of system resources and, as a consequence, server crashes. Fragmented UDP Flood attack is difficult to filter, and there is a great risk of channel overflow. At one time, a similar attack targeted the MMORPG Albion Online server; hackers correctly selected the parameters of packets and intensity of their sending, which allowed them to simulate legitimate traffic.</p>

<h2>TCP SYN Flood</h2>

<p>A typical example from the category of Volumetric attacks. TCP SYN Flood effectively exploits vulnerabilities in the network protocol stack. The client generates an SYN packet by requesting a new session from the server. A standard &quot;three-step handshake&quot; (TCP) algorithm is executed, after which the host begins to monitor and process each user session until it is closed. The attacked server receives SYN requests containing the spoofed source IP address at high speed. As a result, TCP SYN Flood occupies all of the Transmission Control Block (TCB) table memory used to store and process incoming packets. This causes critical performance degradation and hardware failure. The largest platform Amazon, the Italian sports betting site Eurobet, and several well-known companies in South Korea and Turkey were subjected to similar attacks.</p>

<h2>ICMP Flood</h2>

<p>ICMP packets do not require acknowledgment of receipt, so it is difficult to separate them from malicious traffic. Hackers try to flood the channel with spoofed ICMP packets from a wide range of IP addresses. They simply overload a particular server with a flood of requests. ICMP Flood is often implemented to collect preliminary information about a server. Open ports and destination addresses are used to launch a highly targeted attack on them later. As protection from ICMP Flood can serve to ban ICMP on border routers or special algorithms of traffic analysis.</p>

DDoS Botnets Are a Bigger Threat Than We Think

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