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Cybercriminals targeting New Zealand stock exchange operator NZX will use “zombie computers” to form one of the most powerful weapons on the Internet, says an assistant professor at the University of Auckland.
Monday marked the fifth day of foreign cybercriminals attacking NZX with a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.
Last week’s attacks affected NZX’s ability to deliver announcements to the market, and as a result, it had to stop trading.
By Monday, after receiving support from the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the Financial Markets Authority, and Nasdaq-listed Akamai Technologies, NZX had a contingency plan in place that allowed trading to continue. despite suffering another attack.
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NZX appeared to be trading normally at 10.30am. Tuesday and operations began at the normal time of 10 a.m. M.
Lech Janczewski, Associate Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Auckland, said DDOS attacks were one of the most powerful weapons on the internet.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Foreign cybercriminals have been disrupting NZX since Tuesday of last week.
They attacked websites and online services with more traffic than they could accommodate, resulting in a site crash, he said.
The attacker chose a DDOS attack type and then found or developed the necessary software, he said.
They install that software on unprotected “zombie computers”, essentially forming a network of computers called a “botnet.”
The number of computers in a botnet can exceed 100,000, he said.
“At a certain moment or signal, all the zombies start sending messages to the attacked site, causing it to crash.”
DDOS attack software was constantly evolving, and attack vectors became increasingly complicated, he said.
Instead of developing new DDOS attack software, a cybercriminal can buy one using Bitcoins on the dark web, he said.
In a blog post on August 17, Akamai Technologies said that attackers calling themselves the Fancy Bear and Armada Collective were targeting the banking, financial and retail sectors and demanding that a ransom be paid in Bitcoin.
NZX CEO Mark Peterson said Monday morning that he had been informed by independent cyber specialists that the attacks were among the largest, most resourceful and sophisticated they had seen in New Zealand.
Media companies and banks have also been targeted by attacks similar to those that hit NZX.
GCSB Minister Andrew Little said the GCSB was investigating the attacks and the government was working with its Five Eyes partners.
Rizwan Asghar, from the University of Auckland School of Informatics, said New Zealand should learn a lesson from the attacks on NZX and take cybersecurity strategies more seriously.
“We should take a proactive approach to mitigating cyber attacks rather than following a reactive one, including paying any ransom, which is highly discouraged,” Asghar said.
“Otherwise, determined cybercriminals can attack any critical infrastructure that could result in financial and reputational losses.”
