3 ms·

To what end would people do this? > The most frequent targets have been companies from the online gaming sector, followed by educational institutions, the Akam

To what end would people do this? > The most frequent targets have been companies from the online gaming sector, followed by educational institutions, the Akamai team said in an advisory... Doesn't seem like you'd ever make any money doing that. I suppose one competitor could target another. Not sure if its a valuable thing to do. I just dunno what the point of DDoS is besides ransom-type stuff.

tomtoise 11y ago
Speaking from experience (Of getting hit, not running one of these services!) - Gaming is a particularly juicy target, you can set up a basic front-end that allows people to 'hit' certain IP addresses offline for x amount of time in exchange for money. Its use is quite common in certain games like League of Legends, CS:GO etc.
- twoodfin 11y ago
  I assume to gain an advantage in PvP? If so, how does the attacker identify the IP address they want to hit?
  - tomtoise 11y ago
    Or to troll. A while ago, skype had a vulnerability that let people resolve skype names to IP addresses and since skype is the default communication of lazy gamers, it was pretty trivial to work out the correct IP address to poke. Other methods used to include hooking your Xbox360 up to your laptop and bridging your connection, running Cain and Abel and finding the addresses of opponents that way in games like Halo etc. No idea what the scene is like now that we're on xbones and ps4s, I pretty much exclusively game on PC now. There are plenty of services online that let you snatch IP addresses by sending a link to a 'friend', you could then keep tabs on them that way.
  - oddevan 11y ago
    OK, DDoSing and lagswitching has been a big deal in the Destiny community recently, so here's what I know: In Destiny, there's often a weekend-long PvP showdown with top-tier in-game rewards. The game type is 3v3 with no matchmaking, so you must bring your own team; the best rewards are for winning 9 in a row. If your team disconnects, it counts as a loss (no cowards here!). The way Destiny is set up, one player's console is considered the "host" and all the other players connect to it. So if you or someone on your team (a 50-50 chance) is the host, you can see the IPs of everyone in the game by monitoring network traffic. If not, you can still see the host's IP. Find out IP of any opposing player, aim the botnet, fire. Boom. You've instantly got a one-player advantage. Repeat ad nauseam. Suddenly going 9-0 isn't so daunting. The worst part? Unlike other network manipulations, this one is a lot harder for Bungie to prove. But you can bet they're working on it, and they aren't shy about wielding the banhammer if they find cheating.
creshal 11y ago
> besides ransom-type stuff. With next to zero investment necessary, collecting ransoms is lucrative enough to pay off.
- nanocyber 11y ago
  And you won't hear about those pay-offs in the news... bad press for the victim company.

tomtoise 11y ago

Speaking from experience (Of getting hit, not running one of these services!) - Gaming is a particularly juicy target, you can set up a basic front-end that allows people to 'hit' certain IP addresses offline for x amount of time in exchange for money. Its use is quite common in certain games like League of Legends, CS:GO etc.

twoodfin 11y ago
I assume to gain an advantage in PvP? If so, how does the attacker identify the IP address they want to hit?
- tomtoise 11y ago
  Or to troll. A while ago, skype had a vulnerability that let people resolve skype names to IP addresses and since skype is the default communication of lazy gamers, it was pretty trivial to work out the correct IP address to poke. Other methods used to include hooking your Xbox360 up to your laptop and bridging your connection, running Cain and Abel and finding the addresses of opponents that way in games like Halo etc. No idea what the scene is like now that we're on xbones and ps4s, I pretty much exclusively game on PC now. There are plenty of services online that let you snatch IP addresses by sending a link to a 'friend', you could then keep tabs on them that way.
- oddevan 11y ago
  OK, DDoSing and lagswitching has been a big deal in the Destiny community recently, so here's what I know: In Destiny, there's often a weekend-long PvP showdown with top-tier in-game rewards. The game type is 3v3 with no matchmaking, so you must bring your own team; the best rewards are for winning 9 in a row. If your team disconnects, it counts as a loss (no cowards here!). The way Destiny is set up, one player's console is considered the "host" and all the other players connect to it. So if you or someone on your team (a 50-50 chance) is the host, you can see the IPs of everyone in the game by monitoring network traffic. If not, you can still see the host's IP. Find out IP of any opposing player, aim the botnet, fire. Boom. You've instantly got a one-player advantage. Repeat ad nauseam. Suddenly going 9-0 isn't so daunting. The worst part? Unlike other network manipulations, this one is a lot harder for Bungie to prove. But you can bet they're working on it, and they aren't shy about wielding the banhammer if they find cheating.

creshal 11y ago

> besides ransom-type stuff. With next to zero investment necessary, collecting ransoms is lucrative enough to pay off.

nanocyber 11y ago
And you won't hear about those pay-offs in the news... bad press for the victim company.