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My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

dannyguo.com

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Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#31

Post by bee_rider »

ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #16

> With horrible grammar Ah, the days before ChatGPT! On a more serious note, do you think there will ever be a way to stop ddos attacks once and for all? While all threats are bad, ddos is the most lame type of attacks there is; no special skill or knowledge are needed, just load a script or, heck, pay someone who'll execute it for you as a service.

Maybe if the network was much more distributed and lower bandwidth?

If most of your customers are in Mexico, Canada is DDoSing you, and the pipes between you and Canada start filling up as a result that isn’t a big problem, right? As long as consumer routers on you/Mexico’s side of the Canadian clog don’t decide to help out.

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#32

Post by macintux »

EveryPizza wrote: post #27

Quite some time ago, someone from my family was alerted by their cat when the dishwasher was leaking. Their conclusion was that the cat was either trying to save them or the cat was trying to kill them.

One of my all-time favorite novels, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, includes an anecdote: a crow's call wakes up someone who's sleeping outdoors, just as a large cat (a tiger, perhaps) is sneaking up on him.

One character suggests the crow was trying to warn the man. Another posits the bird was bringing the sleeper to the tiger's attention so it could enjoy the scraps after the meal.

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#33

Post by hunter2_ »

mmahemoff wrote: post #4

I thought it was going to be a home server that went into overdrive, heating the room your cat was in or knocking out the aircon. Anyway, better experience than being woken up by a dozen SMS alerts.

Cats love to hang out in warm areas, even sunbathe, so I doubt they'd do anything to get attention in that situation! Their body temperature is a few degrees warmer than that of humans.

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#34

Post by aleksiy123 »

vsnf wrote: post #30
fragmede wrote: post #26

The princely sum of $5,000. We got that at my employer back in 2016. We got hit by a ddos, and decided to ignore it, though we did dig up some BTC just in case. We enacted a bunch of DDoS protection as a result, costing way more than $5,000, but not paying money to extortionists is worth every penny.

The problem with paying extortion or ransoms is that you incentivize the attacker to come back and do it again. It may have been $5k to pay off one attacker and more than that to build the defense, but now you have defenses and are less likely to suffer attackers in the future. And as you say, not paying money to criminals is inherently worthwhile.

On the other hand the attacker may actually have incentive to follow through and hold up their end so as to build a reputation. Making their next victims more likely to just pay.

Somewhere I read that some ransomware had excellent "customer" service for helping you transfer over the payment and promptly restore your files.

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#35

Post by chris_wot »

swampthinker wrote: post #3

And here I thought your somehow hooked up a cat feeder to alerts. Regardless, very cute - what’s your cat’s name?

Funny, that's how the very first customer realised that the Australian telco Optus was down. The wireless cat feeder relied on the Internet and when no food appeared, the cat decided to complain to management.

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#36

Post by fragmede »

vsnf wrote: post #30
fragmede wrote: post #26

The princely sum of $5,000. We got that at my employer back in 2016. We got hit by a ddos, and decided to ignore it, though we did dig up some BTC just in case. We enacted a bunch of DDoS protection as a result, costing way more than $5,000, but not paying money to extortionists is worth every penny.

The problem with paying extortion or ransoms is that you incentivize the attacker to come back and do it again. It may have been $5k to pay off one attacker and more than that to build the defense, but now you have defenses and are less likely to suffer attackers in the future. And as you say, not paying money to criminals is inherently worthwhile.

and this wasn't a poor company, so $5,000 was nothing in the scheme of things

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#39

Post by dguo »

ed_mercer wrote: post #24

> We didn’t reply, though in retrospect, it could have been fun to try to troll them. Not replying is the only valid answer. Trolling them could potentially put you more on their radar and get targeted for other attacks. And for what?

Yep, I know it could only invite more trouble. It was fun to fantasize about though, especially after watching the video I linked to in the post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E

Re: My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack

#40

Post by Waterluvian »

lmm wrote: post #11

Maybe the phone was silent but still flashing a screen? Mine does that in that mode. At my first job we had a guy who could spot incidents coming on the monitoring dashboard before they happened. He never managed to explain or even understand what he was looking for and no-one else picked it up, but he would just see something that made him say things were odd, and most of the time we'd get an alert shortly after.

Make or get a human to stare at streams long enough and they’ll attune to the patterns. We’re wired for patterns. It doesn’t even have to be conscious and explainable. The signals just suddenly aren’t right.
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