Hackers turn back the clock with Telnet attacks

The 40-year old protocol is increasingly being used by hackers, according to Akamai

A new report from Akamai Technologies shows that hackers appear to be increasingly using the Telnet remote access protocol to attack corporate servers over mobile networks.

Akamai, which specializes in managing content and Web traffic, issues quarterly reports on Internet traffic trends. The latest report, which covers the third quarter of 2010, shows that 10 percent of attacks that came from mobile networks are directed at Port 23, which Telnet uses. That marks a somewhat unusual spike for the aging protocol.

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Telnet is a remote access tool used to log into remote servers, but it has been gradually replaced by SSH, also known as Secure Shell. Administrators are generally advised to disable Telnet if the protocol is not used to prevent attacks targeting it, but some forget.

Although those attacks originated from mobile networks, Akamai said it did not appear that mobile devices were the source.

"As noted previously, we believe that the observed attack traffic that is originating from known mobile networks is likely being generated by infected PC-type clients connecting to wireless networks through mobile broadband technologies and not by infected smartphones or similar mobile devices," according to the report.

Including all types of attack traffic sources, about 17 percent of attacks were directed at Telnet. Port 23 was "overwhelmingly the top targeted port for attacks" in Egypt, Peru and Turkey, Akamai said.

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"It is not clear if there is a common thread that connects these three countries, nor whether these observed attacks were brute-force login attempts or some other botnet-related traffic," the report said.

Akamai found that Port 445, which is a commonly used port for Microsoft products, was the most targeted one, although the attacks declined. The attacks peaked more than a year ago due to Conficker, a worm that rapidly spread and targeted the port.

"While the percentages are still fairly significant, this decline may signal ongoing efforts by network service providers to identify and isolate infected systems, as well as ongoing efforts to patch and/or upgrade infected systems," the report said.

Port 445 attacks were responsible for much of the attack traffic in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Russia, Taiwan and the US. In China, however, attacks against SSH, which runs on Port 22, were more common than those against Port 445, Akamai said.

Top Dangerous attack in the history of the Cyberspace::

Robert Tappan Morris and the Morris Worm (1988):

Creator of the first computer worm transmitted through the Internet, Morris, a student at Cornell Univeristy in the USA, claimed it his progeny was not aimed to harm but was made for the innocuous intent to determine the vastness of the cyberspace.
Things went pear-shaped when a the worm encountered a critical error and morphed into a virus which replicated rapidly and began infecting other computers resulting in denial of service. The damage? 6000 computers were reportedly affected causing an estimated $10-$100 million dollars in repair bills.
While this event could be pinned as being an unfortunate accident, it no doubt played a part in inspiring the calamitous distributed denial-of-service (DdoS) type of attacks we see today.

MafiaBoy causes $1 billion dollars in damages (2000):

Another 15 year old that caused mischief in cyber space was Michael Calce a.k.a. MafiaBoy.
In 2000, Calce, now 25, was just a Canadian high school student when decided to unleash a DDoS attack on a number of high-profile commercial websites including Amazon, CNN, eBay and Yahoo!.An industry expert estimated the attacks resulted in a $US1.2 billion dollar damage bill.
He was later apprehended. Because he was still a juvenile, Calce was sentenced in 2001 to eight months in open custody, meaning his movements and actions would be restricted. His online access was also limited by the court.
Calce and since scored gigs as a columnist and recently published a book about his ordeal.

Google China hit by cyber attack (2009):

When Google's Chinese headquarters detected a security breech in mid-December, it opened up a whole can of worms (pun intended) implicating the Chinese Government.
Hackers had gained access to several Google’s corporate servers and intellectual property was stolen.
In a blog, Google said it has “evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinse human rights activists”. As the company dug deeper, they found numerous Gmail of users from US, China and Europe had been routinely been accessed without permission. Those emails belonged to advocates of human rights in China.
All eyes darted towards the Chinse Government, which has been accused of flagrantly disregarding human rights for years.
Google entered the Chinese market with www.google.cn in 2006 and capitulated to China’s stringent Internet censorship regime. The cyber attacks in December 2009 resulted in the company’s re-evaluation of its business in the country.
In March 2010, Google relocated its servers for google.cn to Hong Kong in order to escape China’s Internet filtering policy.

Teen hacks NASA and US Defense Department:
The year was 1999. Jonathan James was 15 at the time but what he did that year secured him a place in the hacker’s hall of fame.
James had managed to penetrate the computers of a US Department of Defense divison and installed a ‘backdoor’ on its servers. This allowed him to intercept thousands of internal emails from different government organisations including ones containing usernames and passwords for various military computers.
Using the stolen information, James was able to steal a piece of NASA software which cost the space exploration agency $41,000 as systems were shutdown for three weeks.
According to NASA, “the software [purported to be worth $1.7 million] supported the International Space Station’s physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space.”
James was later caught but received a light sentence due to his young age.
He committed suicide in 2008 after he was accused of conspiring with other hackers to steal credit card information. James denied the allegation in his suicide letter.

Phone lines blocked to win Porsche (1995)
Kevin Poulsen is famous for his work in hacking into the Los Angeles phone system in a bid to win a Ferrari on a radio competiton.
LA KIIS FM was offering a Porsche 944 S2 to the 102th caller. Poulsen guaranteed his success as he took control of the phone network and effectively blocked incoming calls to the radio station’s number.
He won the Porsche but the law caught up to him and he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Poulsen later became the senior editor for IT security publication, Wired News.

Hacker targets Scientology (2008):
In January 2008, a New Jersey teenager along with a gang of hackers launched a DDoS attack that crippled the Church of Scientology website for several days.
The group is dubbed Annoymous and is staunchly against the ‘religion’.
Dmitriy Guzner, who was 19 years old, was charged and convicted for the DDoS attack. The maximum penalty was 10 years prison and a $250,000 fine but he was ultimately sentenced to two years probation and was ordered to pay the Church of Scientology $37,500.
A second man has been charged for the attac

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Post by Madan Kumar Pathak