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That sounds like either clueless reporting or an attempt at blame shifting. The heating system of a building is not a typical DDoS target, and it's improbable
by ge0rg 10y ago
That sounds like either clueless reporting or an attempt at blame shifting.
The heating system of a building is not a typical DDoS target, and it's improbable that somebody living outside of that building had a take against the inhabitants, knew of the right IP(s) for that building, and the effect a DDoS would have.
It's more plausible that the control system was designed so badly that exposing it to the Internet (and the accompanying background noise from port scanners, be it botnets, spammers or IoT malware) caused it to break down.
Then, the operators saw the effect of the misconfiguration and proclaimed it was a DDoS, because you don't get fired for breaking down under a DDoS, as opposed to having miserable IT security in place. This is similar to getting hacked by "the Russians" (or other state-level evildoers) where it is widely accepted that you just can't prevent such incidents.
- na85 10y agoPerhaps. I wouldn't discount actual ddos, though. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd have done in my youth (if I had had the skills) if I would've discovered lax security in my own building's systems and it pissed me off. IOT companies don't tend to have bug bounties et al, and shutting off the heat to some buildings seems like a mostly harmless way to get some publicity for the issue.
- zmb_ 10y agoIt is bad reporting. The systems in question were used as a part of launching a DDoS attack, they were not the target of the attack. The high load then caused the systems to crash repeatedly.
- ge0rg 10y agoDo you have a better source for that? In the article it rather reads like the control system was at the receiving end: The systems that were attacked tried to respond to the attack by rebooting the main control circuit.
- sesqu 10y agoThe service provider says it was a DDOS but the device manufacturer says it was probably an aftershock of the Mirai botnet that uses IoT to launch attacks.
- shandor 10y agoOfficials reported (sorry, no link) that they had "heavy reasons" to think that the attack was 1) done by actual criminals 2) pointed elsewhere, and the heating system was just one of the many systems used to initiate the attack. They weren't more specific as to who attacked and who was the actual intended victim, but they were pretty sure the heatimg systems going down was just collateral. Welcome to the Internet of Shit.
- sfifs 10y agoCould very well be a prank by teenagers who spot a hole in a nearby buildings systems. Not necessary to assume reporter has it wrong unless you have a contradictory source.