Massive Cyber Attack Takes Down The New York Times, Twitter, PayPal, Among Other Major Sites
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A number of cyber attacks disrupted service on a slew of major websites Friday morning, affecting internet users across the world.
The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are believed to have started around 7 a.m. EST. The first wave targeted the servers of Dyn, a New Hampshire-based DNS host, and mainly affected users in the Eastern U.S. While Dyn announced that it had solved issues related to that incident, yet another round of attacks was detected around 12:28 p.m. EST. The second wave appears to have affected the U.S. West Coast and parts of Europe, Gizmodo reported.
A slew of major websites and services also experienced disruptions Friday morning, and it’s more than likely related to the attacks. Those sites include Twitter, Reddit, Amazon, Spotify, Pinterest and Netflix. Several major news sites, including The Verge, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times are also on the list of sites that experienced interruptions.
It’s not immediately clear who was responsible behind the cyber assaults. White House officials called the DDoS attacks “malicious activity,” and reported that both the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were currently investigating the incidents, according to Reuters.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks target DNS servers like Dyn’s — which act as a switchboard and address book for your web browser. The DDoS attacks work by flooding those servers with tons of illegitimate address requests, snarling attempts to connect to a site because real traffic cannot make it through. Worryingly, the code required to create the bot networks required to unleash such an attack are readily available on portions of the internet, USA Today reported.
Dyn, whose customers include some of the largest internet firms and corporations, said that their first priority is to restore service. Once service is up and running smoothly again, they’ll focus on investigating the cause and nature of the outages.
As of the writing of this article, Reddit and Twitter, along with several other sites, still could not be accessed.
A map of areas affected by the outages can be found, here. Additionally, you can view reports from Dyn’s engineers here.
Known Sites Affected By DDoS Attacks
1. ShutterStock
2. MacRumors
3. WhatsApp
4. Ubisoft
5. Box
6. Twitter
7. Github
8. Spotify
9. Shopify
10. Fresh Books
11. Netflix (Slow loading time)
12. Botson Globe
13. The New York Times
14. Bitly
15. PayPal
16. The Verge
17. Pinterest
18. Constant Contact
19. NHL.com
20. BBC
Were your favorite websites affected by the attack? Let us know in the comments below.
