Largest Ever 400Gbps DDoS Attack Hits Europe Uses NTP Amplification

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRsLQKjsIQLhoDwLxBk0Nv1br9BykbsDb-4QFBwLeUUXrLgzE6xII6ly5EJxgN3XFWnTnSzr57SuniQaDw7HOpd3a6x2YRq-r27B4HaS_isLGstcB-RgjplKO0Za3eD3wPti7YptpUc3I/s1600/NTP-Distributed-Denial-of-Service-DDoS-attack.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Largest Ever 400Gbps DDoS Attack Hits Europe Uses NTP Amplification" border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRsLQKjsIQLhoDwLxBk0Nv1br9BykbsDb-4QFBwLeUUXrLgzE6xII6ly5EJxgN3XFWnTnSzr57SuniQaDw7HOpd3a6x2YRq-r27B4HaS_isLGstcB-RgjplKO0Za3eD3wPti7YptpUc3I/s1600/NTP-Distributed-Denial-of-Service-DDoS-attack.png" title="Largest Ever 400Gbps DDoS Attack Hits Europe Uses NTP Amplification" width="400" /></a></div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is the one of favorite weapon for the hackers to temporarily suspend services of a host connected to the Internet and till now nearly every big site had been a victim of this attack.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Since 2013, Hackers have adopted new tactics to boost Distributed Denial of Service attack sizes, which is known as ‘<i>Amplification Attack</i>’, that provide the benefits of obscuring the source of the attack, while enabling the bandwidth to be used to multiply the size of the attack.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> </div> <div style="clear: both; margin: 10px 0;"> </div> <div id="aim24030714330331657239"> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Just yesterday, hackers have succeeded in reaching new heights of the massive DDoS attack targeting content-delivery and anti-DDoS protection firm <i><a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/understanding-and-mitigating-ntp-based-ddos-attacks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cloudfare</a></i>, reaching more than 400Gbps at its peak of traffic, striking at the company’s data servers in Europe.</div> <blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;"> “<i>Very big NTP reflection attack hitting us right now. Appears to be bigger than the #Spamhaus attack from last year. Mitigating</i>,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price said in a tweet. “<i>Someone’s got a big, new cannon. Start of ugly things to come</i>,”</blockquote> <div style="text-align: justify;"> This massive DDoS attack was greater than ever in history of the Internet, and larger than previous DDoS record-holder <i>Spamhaus </i>DDoS attack i.e. 300Gbps, that almost broke the Internet.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Attackers leveraged weaknesses in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), which is used to synchronize computer clocks, but hackers are abusing the NTP servers by sending small spoofed 8-byte UDP packets to the vulnerable server that requests a large amount of data (megabytes worth of traffic) to be sent to the DDoS's target IP Address.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The frequency of NTP reflection attacks has grown in recent months. While researchers have long-predicted that NTP might someday become a great vector for DDoS attacks and ideal DDoS tool, and the trend has recently become popular, causing an issue for some gaming websites and service provider.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Recently, The <a href="https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA14-017A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">US-CERT</a> issued an alert warning, listed certain UDP protocols identified as potential attack vectors for Amplification Attack, including DNS, NTP, SNMPv2, NetBIOS, SSDP ,CharGEN, QOTD, BitTorrent, Kad, Quake Network and Protocol Steam Protocol.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> As all versions of ntpd prior to 4.2.7 are vulnerable by default, the simplest recommended course of action is to upgrade all versions of ntpd that are publically accessible to at least 4.2.7. Until all the misconfigured NTP servers are cleaned up, attacks of this nature will continue.</div> </div> </div>

Largest Ever 400Gbps DDoS Attack Hits Europe Uses NTP Amplification

The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is the one of favorite weapon for the hackers to temporarily suspend services of a hos...

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Zouhair A. Khaliq Steps Down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5tfELLIPM_eN97WfHgFu4tfZRLYlllPQpZYUFeMgwOFfhqY4zL7msmEu4opRqK0b8MwUKFacK8J3LlShNIBYGskFCWAAM85l9BLaUj6xAsc8wh93KveHLU5k-W_vInNpvBSlaLpjbI0/s1600/Zouhair_A._Khaliq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Zouhair A. Khaliq Steps Down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom" border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5tfELLIPM_eN97WfHgFu4tfZRLYlllPQpZYUFeMgwOFfhqY4zL7msmEu4opRqK0b8MwUKFacK8J3LlShNIBYGskFCWAAM85l9BLaUj6xAsc8wh93KveHLU5k-W_vInNpvBSlaLpjbI0/s1600/Zouhair_A._Khaliq.jpg" title="Zouhair A. Khaliq Steps Down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom" width="400" /></a></div> Zouhair A. Khaliq has stepped down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom, Pakistan after completing a 3 year-tenure that led to the restructuring and reorganization of Wateen, said official statement issued by the company.<br /> It may be recalled that Zouhair was appointed by Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, to the Board of Wateen and Warid in December 2010. However, later on he resigned from Warid Board while continued to remain the board member of Wateen Telecom.<br /> Naeem Zamindar was appointed CEO at the same time and together this team brought in key new members to strengthen the management team and address the challenges at the Company.<br /> Zouhair led the restructuring effort as Chairman of the Board Executive Committee.<br /> <div class="adsxpls" id="adsxpls1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </div> Working with the CEO and shareholders Zouhair played a key role in strengthening Board Governance bringing in additional independent members to the Board, and reorganizing the operational team, including the appointment of a Restructuring firm to successfully negotiate new financial terms with its lenders.<br /> Zouhair’s leadership consolidated and refocused Wateen’s businesses leading the effort in carving out the WiMax business and <a href="http://rexhacker.blogspot.com/2013/12/breaking-wateen-and-qubee-to.html" target="_blank">planning a merger with QuBee</a>.<br /> The Company went private by de-listing from the Stock Exchanges, strengthened the LDI business and charted a new strategy for its fibre business.<br /> His contribution enabled Wateen to emerge from a loss making entity to one which is generating positive EBITDA and is now viewed as a stable organization set to build on these successes.<br /> Zouhair is currently based in the UK and continues to work in an advisory capacity in the Telecom and Technology sector where he has had a successful and productive career over the last 22 years.</div>

Zouhair A. Khaliq Steps Down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom

Zouhair A. Khaliq has stepped down as Board Member of Wateen Telecom, Pakistan after completing a 3 year-tenure that led to the restruct...

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Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKyyPISTtysXKQ8ZvQ4wtny9EUZvWWTTw9vzvXI_rosRPhVuhOfsKxKSP2qxM39q_7SDsmc-YYHkckgvlO84agWTnHGLPtlx041vpoOHLUdv3rQARFFLuRZp1e4udDSBdibWcXMqRDxA/s1600/Telenor%E2%80%99s+Revenues+Decline+During+Q4+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKyyPISTtysXKQ8ZvQ4wtny9EUZvWWTTw9vzvXI_rosRPhVuhOfsKxKSP2qxM39q_7SDsmc-YYHkckgvlO84agWTnHGLPtlx041vpoOHLUdv3rQARFFLuRZp1e4udDSBdibWcXMqRDxA/s1600/Telenor%E2%80%99s+Revenues+Decline+During+Q4+2013.jpg" title="Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013" width="400" /></a></div> Telenor Pakistan posted its total revenues of Rs. 23.14 billion (or NOK 1340 million) for fourth quarter of 2013, down from NOK 1,421 million during the same duration last year.<br /> Total revenues in local currency declined by 1%, mainly due to price erosion from low priced on-net offers and negative contribution from ICH of 3 percentage points.<br /> Telenor Pakistan’s revenues from subscriptions and traffic stood at Rs. 17.02 billion during the quarter ended December 31st, 2014, while non-mobile revenues during the report period were recorded at Rs. 4.27 billion.<br /> The EBITDA margin decreased by 8 percentage points primarily coming from increased commissions as last year was affected by the government directed SIM sale restrictions and increased push on Easypaisa services this quarter.<br /> <div class="adsxpls" id="adsxpls1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </div> Operating profit improved by Rs. 5.82 billion (NOK 337 million) as accelerated depreciations were reduced following the completion of network modernisation.<br /> Capital expenditure decreased after the successful completion of network modernisation and was focused towards network optimisation and swapping of billing platform.<br /> ARPU in local currency decreased by 8% and reached Rs. 189, down from Rs. 208 during same period last year, mainly due to increased focus on on-net offers accompanied by the decrease in interconnect ARPU due to shifting of revenues from incoming international traffic through International Clearing House (ICH) to non-mobile revenues and declining levels of domestic interconnect traffic.<br /> Average monthly minutes per user increased from 217 during Q4 2012 to 245 during Q4 2013.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8uOIeFpLULQEdi651sHHmKaKAc_FUhL7t4RVxHpqH6oE-0gMNtUF_aiG7KprNqAm47hrg0Ph_8VR6iJ7nGAR3asjYoijV8ILwrhy2vgp84XjCZNXZfkGH61pCNViixkMPo87HwaSULw/s1600/Telenor-Q4-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013" border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8uOIeFpLULQEdi651sHHmKaKAc_FUhL7t4RVxHpqH6oE-0gMNtUF_aiG7KprNqAm47hrg0Ph_8VR6iJ7nGAR3asjYoijV8ILwrhy2vgp84XjCZNXZfkGH61pCNViixkMPo87HwaSULw/s1600/Telenor-Q4-2013.jpg" title="Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013" width="400" /></a></div> </div>

Telenor’s Revenues Decline During Q4 2013

Telenor Pakistan posted its total revenues of Rs. 23.14 billion (or NOK 1340 million) for fourth quarter of 2013, down from NOK 1,421 m...

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Samsung Announces Galaxy Star Trios With Support for Three SIM Cards

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_Bzctid3pU-MaAifYNdBNCTJApi6imA6LGiHJtpEQPKMH03NbexVzpk-qQGrDbtuN5tPZB7GcGT5ip5g5tHsyjtO4UjjQLgxcD1-ricCvu1pFpssPWFm_nzNZTug0S6lDaB_BoedHss/s1600/Samsung+Announces+Galaxy+Star+Trios+With+Support+for+Three+SIM+Cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Samsung Announces Galaxy Star Trios With Support for Three SIM Cards" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_Bzctid3pU-MaAifYNdBNCTJApi6imA6LGiHJtpEQPKMH03NbexVzpk-qQGrDbtuN5tPZB7GcGT5ip5g5tHsyjtO4UjjQLgxcD1-ricCvu1pFpssPWFm_nzNZTug0S6lDaB_BoedHss/s1600/Samsung+Announces+Galaxy+Star+Trios+With+Support+for+Three+SIM+Cards.jpg" title="Samsung Announces Galaxy Star Trios With Support for Three SIM Cards" /></a></div> Samsung has announced a new smartphone for SIM-card collectors. The new Galaxy Star Trios goes one step above its <a href="http://rexhacker.blogspot.com/2013/12/samsung-announces-dual-sim-android.html" target="_blank">Duos cousin</a> and houses three SIM-card slots.<br /> <div class="adsxpls" id="adsxpls1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </div> The phone obviously lies in the budget market and its maker tries to hide nothing with its 3.1″ display with resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.<br /> The same thinking runs deep down to the hardware. You get a single-core Snapdragon S1 processor and 512 MB RAM. A lonely rear-camera sans flash is found at the back while the front is totally bare.<br /> <ul> <li>Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean customized with TouchWiz</li> <li>3.1″ display with QVGA resolution of 240 x 320 pixels</li> <li>11mm thick</li> <li>Weight: 105g</li> <li>1Ghz single-core Snapdragon MSM7225A S1 processor</li> <li>512 MB RAM with 4 GB expandable internal storage</li> <li>2 megapixel rear-camera with VGA video</li> <li>Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, microUSB 2.0, Radio</li> <li>1,300 mAh battery</li> <li>Available in Black and White</li> </ul> The phone will be available for a not-so-tempting price tag of $165. Unless you really need three SIM card slots, this is Moto G-owned territory and we don’t see anyone nearby here.</div>

Samsung Announces Galaxy Star Trios With Support for Three SIM Cards

Samsung has announced a new smartphone for SIM-card collectors. The new Galaxy Star Trios goes one step above its Duos cousin and houses...

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MediaTek Announces Octa-Core Processor to Rival Snapdragon 805

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnZ_yufTR58RZwmx16ls-mc_xC62qip7_fAPKcptO6_P2qZXdZrsCNOy5TFfjFMIAGIIdsk2tabsNF8LYMC0ehEPdDX0DTHcpp2eEilcANyRlDsBuIIEluMo-VdRU9EB3Pi2JJQccD7ZM/s1600/MediaTek+Announces+Octa-Core+Processor+to+Rival+Snapdragon+805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="MediaTek Announces Octa-Core Processor to Rival Snapdragon 805" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnZ_yufTR58RZwmx16ls-mc_xC62qip7_fAPKcptO6_P2qZXdZrsCNOy5TFfjFMIAGIIdsk2tabsNF8LYMC0ehEPdDX0DTHcpp2eEilcANyRlDsBuIIEluMo-VdRU9EB3Pi2JJQccD7ZM/s1600/MediaTek+Announces+Octa-Core+Processor+to+Rival+Snapdragon+805.jpg" title="MediaTek Announces Octa-Core Processor to Rival Snapdragon 805" width="400" /></a></div> MediaTek has announced a new top-end octa-core processor which will rival the current top-end offerings from Qualcomm and others, the MT6595.<br /> The processor consists of four 2.2-2.5Ghz Cortex A17 and four 1.7Ghz Cortex A7 chips and thanks to ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture and Heterogenous Multi-Processing, the intensity of task decides how many cores kick into action. This is much efficient and saves battery life.<br /> The MT6595 is also the first processor with LTE system-on-chip and supports 4K video playback and capture.<br /> <div class="adsxpls" id="adsxpls1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </div> It comes with a new Rogue PowerVR Series 6 GPU unit to handle all the intense graphics of modern day gaming and entertainment stuff.<br /> MediaTek was also the first company to unveil the world’s first true octa-core processor not long ago but the replacement of four Cortex A7 cores by A17 has brought in an additional 60% increase in performance.<br /> The processor also comes with support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and 20mp camera modules.<br /> You’ll find it in phones lying the $99-$199 on-contract range or $200 to $300 without subsidies, so it won’t really have to spend a fortune to buy this thing.<br /> You can expect MT6595 to hit the markets by the end of this year.</div>

MediaTek Announces Octa-Core Processor to Rival Snapdragon 805

MediaTek has announced a new top-end octa-core processor which will rival the current top-end offerings from Qualcomm and others, the M...

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Snapchat User Accounts Vulnerable to Brute-Force Attack

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglZCY8EkyhoBK1mBcMt08TicPcOJD6APgQcoojNHKByKoykNeb-DmWe7qq31vuRi9tx2Tg68mTUG_1FnntzLyMcVXAV7g-hSEfQDwI-9bYMZ0KDmMnc5J_FqLNpIF6-iK9fn4uEOmMZY/s1600/Snapchat-hacking-user-accounts-vulnerable-Brute-Force-Attack.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Snapchat User Accounts Vulnerable to Brute-Force Attack" border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglZCY8EkyhoBK1mBcMt08TicPcOJD6APgQcoojNHKByKoykNeb-DmWe7qq31vuRi9tx2Tg68mTUG_1FnntzLyMcVXAV7g-hSEfQDwI-9bYMZ0KDmMnc5J_FqLNpIF6-iK9fn4uEOmMZY/s1600/Snapchat-hacking-user-accounts-vulnerable-Brute-Force-Attack.png" title="Snapchat User Accounts Vulnerable to Brute-Force Attack" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Snapchat</b>, a Smartphone application that lets users share snapshots with friends is catching fire among teenagers. It was first hacked in December when 4.6 million Snapchat users were exposed in a database breach.<br /> </div> <div style="clear: both; margin: 10px 0;"> </div> <div id="aim22428252392907758956"> <br /> Later, the denial-of-service attack and CAPTCHA Security bypass were discovered by other researchers within last two-three weeks. Snapchat has no Vulnerability Reward Program, but still many penetration testers are working hard and free of cost to make the application more secure by disclosing flaws. <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Interestingly, this is not the end of vulnerabilities, <i>Mohamed Ramadan</i>, a security researcher with Attack-Secure from Egypt, has spotted a new vulnerability on Snapchat that allow an attacker to brute-force login credentials of the users. Brute-force is a process of trying multiple passwords against a username until you get a correct password.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "<i>This vulnerability allows anyone who knows your SnapChat email to brute force your account’s password without any protection from snapchat side, there is no lockout. Limited tries or even </i><i>Captcha.</i>" he said in a <a href="http://attack-secure.com/2014/02/account-brute-forcing-vulnerability-in-snapchat-app/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blog post</a>.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <center> </center> <div style="text-align: justify;"> He found this security flaw late in 2013, reported it to Snapchat's Security Team and they took 2 Months to fix the flaw. However, vulnerability has been fixed; but users are recommended to use Strong passwords always.<br /> <br /> The security flaws doesn't mean that SnapChat is losing its reputation in the market as security issues are common in every app we use today, and moreover it is the popularity and easiness of the app that Facebook offered $3 Billion to purchase it but the SnapChat CEO rejected the offer.</div> </div> </div>

Snapchat User Accounts Vulnerable to Brute-Force Attack

Snapchat , a Smartphone application that lets users share snapshots with friends is catching fire among teenagers. It was first hacked...

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