DDoS Attacks Shifting To VPS Infrastructure For Increased Power

Hyper-volumetric DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks in the first quarter of 2023 have shifted from relying on compromised IoT devices to leveraging breached Virtual Private Servers (VPS). BleepingComputer reports: According to internet security company Cloudflare, the newer generation of botnets gradually abandoned the tactic of building large swarms of individually weak IoT devices and are now shifting towards enslaving vulnerable and misconfigured VPS servers using leaked API credentials or known exploits. This approach helps the threat actors build high-performance botnets easier and often quicker, which can be up to 5,000 times stronger than IoT-based botnets. "The new generation of botnets uses a fraction of the amount of devices, but each device is substantially stronger," explains Cloudflare in the report. "Cloud computing providers offer virtual private servers to allow start ups and businesses to create performant applications. The downside is that it also allows attackers to create high-performance botnets that can be as much as 5,000x stronger." Cloudflare has been working with key cloud computing providers and partners to crack down on these emerging VPS-based threats and says it has succeeded in taking down substantial portions of these novel botnets.

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