Eircom – DDOS or not DDOS, that is the question

Rumours are flying in thick and fast about the source of, and reason for, the recent apparent DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack on Eircom’s DNS servers, including the suggestion that a Russian mafia is behind the whole affair in an attempt to either blackmail Eircom or lower the share price enough to effect a buy out.

I can't get enough of this image

Perhaps the single most interesting article on the topic doesn’t come from Softpedia, SiliconRepublic or ourselves, but from Justin Mason’s Weblog, which points out that the initial results of the attack on Eircom’s DNS servers correspond far more closely to what’s called a “Kaminsky DNS-cache poisoning attack.”

Specifically, the fact that people were being redirected from popular sites like RTE.ie and Facebook.com to images of “scantily clad” young ladies supports this theory. Moreover, this kind of an attack could, he argues, could be carried out by a lone Irish teenager, as opposed to a terrifying Easter Promises styled Russian mafia organisation. It would also have the added effect of being perceived as a DDOS level of traffic. The only real question left in the equation is whether or not you think Eircom could be brought to its knees for days on end by a lone teenager, but we’ll leave that one to you.

It’s an excellent article and anyone with an interest in just why their internet hasn’t been working should certainly investigate it.

You can read Justin Mason’s post, here.

Tags: ireland, eircom, internet, Irish, hack, dns, isp, ddos, russia, mafia, russian mafia, blackmail, Kaminsky