Betfair issues DDoS rallying call

 

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By Rene Millman

Posted on 18 Apr 2007 at 15:01

The gambling industry has warned that businesses must work more closely with ISPs to prevent hackers from launching successful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against websites.

Rorie Devine, chief technology officer at online gambling group Betfair told delegates at a conference in London that businesses need to ensure co-operation with ISPs to successfully combat attacks designed to take websites offline.

Most DDoS attacks are caused by hackers using botnets, large numbers of compromised computers used to send massive amounts of data to overwhelm a webserver. Devine said that in 2000, there were only six botnets in existence - now there are around 30,000.

'China, rather than Eastern Europe seems to be the new "centre of excellence" for botnets,' said Devine. 'And the attacks have got a lot bigger, really!'

He said that the biggest botnet identified has 75,000 compromised hosts. He urged businesses to work with their ISPs and telcos now to ensure the problem was dealt with.

Devine said that organisations needed layered defences to protect themselves against such attacks as there was 'no magic box or device' that could undertake the task by itself.

'Concurrent connections, not bandwidth, are your scarcest resource,' said Devine. 'You need to swim faster than your buddy.'

Marino Zini, head of managed services at ISP Clara.net said that 'DDoS attacks are a very real concern for any business involved in e-commerce or hosting business operations online.'

'By addressing the causes of downtime, businesses can learn how best to conduct commercial activity online and plan for a reliable and secure future,' he said.