NSA warns “fast flux” threatens national security. What is fast flux anyway?


A technique that hostile nation-states and financially motivated ransomware groups are using to hide their operations poses a threat to critical infrastructure and national security, the National Security Agency has warned.

The technique is known as fast flux. It allows decentralized networks operated by threat actors to hide their infrastructure and survive takedown attempts that would otherwise succeed. Fast flux works by cycling through a range of IP addresses and domain names that these botnets use to connect to the Internet. In some cases, IPs and domain names change every day or two; in other cases, they change almost hourly. The constant flux complicates the task of isolating the true origin of the infrastructure.

Read more…
Source: ArsTechnica


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • New Windows hack warning: Patch Intel systems now to block SWAPGSAttack exploits

    August 6, 2019

    A newly uncovered vulnerability affecting every Windows computer using an Intel processor built since 2012 could allow attackers to bypass safeguards and access information held in a system’s protected kernel memory. This new side-channel attack is built on previous research into other CPU vulnerabilities – such as Spectre and Meltdown – but this new vulnerability can bypass the ...

  • LokiBot Gains New Persistence Mechanism, Uses Steganography to Hide Its Tracks

    August 6, 2019

    First advertised as an information stealer and keylogger when it first appeared in underground forums, LokiBot has added various capabilities over the years. Recent activity has seen the malware family abusing Windows Installer for its installation and introducing a new delivery method that involves spam mails containing malicious ISO file attachments. Our analysis of a new LokiBot variant shows that ...

  • Millions of Android Smartphones Vulnerable to Trio of Qualcomm Bugs

    August 6, 2019

    Security researchers from Tencent’s Blade Team are warning Android smartphone and tablet users of flaws in Qualcomm chipsets, called QualPwn. The bugs collectively allow hackers to compromise Android devices remotely simply by sending malicious packets over-the-air – no user interaction required. Three bugs make up QualPwn (CVE-2019-10539, CVE-2019-10540 and CVE-2019-10538). The prerequisite for the attack is ...

  • Cyberattacks against industrial targets have doubled over the last 6 months

    August 5, 2019

    Cyberattacks designed to cause damage have doubled in the past six months and 50 percent of organizations affected are in the manufacturing sector, researchers say. On Monday, IBM’s X-Force IRIS incident response team published new research based on recent cyberattacks they have been called in to assist with, and the main trend the group is witnessing is the ...

  • A cyber-espionage group has been stealing files from the Venezuelan military

    August 5, 2019

    A cyber-espionage group known as “Machete” has been observed stealing sensitive files from the Venezuelan military, according to an ESET report published today. The group, known to have been active since 2010, has historically gone after a wide range of targets from all over the world. However, ESET said that starting with this year, Machete has ...

  • Latest Trickbot Campaign Delivered via Highly Obfuscated JS File

    August 5, 2019

    We have been tracking Trickbot banking trojan activity and recently discovered a variant of the malware (detected by Trend Micro as TrojanSpy.Win32.TRICKBOT.TIGOCDC) from distributed spam emails that contain a Microsoft Word document with enabled macro. Once the document is clicked, it drops a heavily obfuscated JS file (JavaScript) that downloads Trickbot as its payload. This malware ...