Permanent Denial-of-Service Attacks on the Rise, Incidents Involve Hardware-Damaging Assaults

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Permanent Denial-of-Service Attacks on the Rise, Incidents Involve Hardware-Damaging Assaults

By CircleID Reporter
April 08, 2017, 9:13 pm PDT Views: 14,988 Add Comment

Also known loosely as “phlashing” in some circles, Permanent Denial-of-Service (PDoS) is an increasing popular form of cyberattack that damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. “By exploiting security flaws or misconfigurations, PDoS can destroy the firmware and/or basic functions of system,” report researchers from security firm, Radware. “It is a contrast to its well-known cousin, the DDoS attack, which overloads systems with requests meant to saturate resources through unintended usage. ... Over a four-day period, Radware’s honeypot recorded 1,895 PDoS attempts performed from several locations around the world. Its sole purpose was to compromise IoT devices and corrupt their storage. ... Upon successful access to the device, the PDoS bot performed a series of Linux commands that would ultimately lead to corrupted storage, followed by commands to disrupt Internet connectivity, device performance, and the wiping of all files on the device.”

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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