ONLINE GAMBLING COMPANIES NEED TO WORK CLOSER WITH ISPs ON DDOS THREAT

20 April 2007

Chief techie at Betfair estimates there are now 30 000 malicious botnets out there

Rorie Devine, the chief technology officer for the international online betting exchange Betfair, told a conference in London this week that Distributed Denial of Services attacks was a serious threat, and that businesses must work more closely with ISPs to prevent hackers from launching successful assaults designed to take sites offline as a basis for criminal extortion.

Devine revealed that most DDoS attacks are caused by hackers using botnets, large numbers of compromised computers used to send massive amounts of data to overwhelm a webserver. Devine said that in 2000, there were only six botnets in existence - now there are around 30 000.

"China, rather than Eastern Europe seems to be the new 'centre of excellence' for botnets," said Devine. "And the attacks have got a lot bigger, really!"

The biggest botnet identified thus far mustered an incredible 75 000 compromised hosts, and Devine said that organisations needed layered defences to protect themselves against such attacks as there was 'no magic box or device' that could undertake the task by itself.

"Concurrent connections, not bandwidth, are your scarcest resource," said Devine. "You need to swim faster than your buddy."

Addressing the same conference, Marino Zini, head of managed services at ISP Clara.net said that "DDoS attacks are a very real concern for any business involved in e-commerce or hosting business operations online. By addressing the causes of downtime, businesses can learn how best to conduct commercial activity online and plan for a reliable and secure future," he said.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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