Tag: belgium

UK police crack down on people paying for DDoS attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise, affecting individuals , private businesses and government-funded institutions alike. As part of a large warning to cybercriminals, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested 12 individuals for using a DDoS-for-hire service called Netspoof. “Operation Vulcanialia” targeted 60 citizens in total, and led to 30 cease and desist notices, and the seizure of equipment from 11 suspects. The NCA says it had two focuses: arresting repeat offenders and educating first-time users about the consequences of cybercrime. The work formed part of Operation Tarpit , a larger effort co-ordinated by Europol. Law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, France, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US targeted users of DDoS tools together, resulting in 34 arrests and 101 suspects being interviewed and cautioned. The UK’s contribution was spearheaded by intelligence gathered by the West Midlands Regional Cyber Crime Unit, and executed by Regional Organised Crime Units under the watchful eye of the NCA. Some of the arrests were detailed in a press release — all but one was under the age of 30. Netspoof allowed anyone to initiate potentially devastating DDoS attacks from as little as £4. Packages soared to as much as £380, however, depending on the user’s requirements. It meant almost anyone, regardless of their technical background, could take down sites and services by flooding them with huge amounts of data. The trend is representative of the increase in cybercrime and how easy it is for people to wield such powers. DDoS attacks aren’t comparable to hacking, but they’re still a worrisome tactic for businesses. Knocking a service offline can affect a company’s finances and reputation, angering customers in the process. Twelve arrests is by no means insignificant, but it almost certainly represents a small number of DDoS users. Still, it’s a warning shot from the NCA — it’s aware of the problem, and officers are putting more resources into tracking those who both use and facilitate such attacks on the internet. Via: Ars Technica Source: Europol , NCA

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UK police crack down on people paying for DDoS attacks

Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

It may have just been a matter of time , but it finally happened: streaming music is now the biggest cash cow for the American music industry. The RIAA’s latest year-end sales report reveals that streaming accounted for 34.3 percent of US music revenue in 2015, barely edging past the 34 percent of downloads. Physical sales, meanwhile, were down to 28.8 percent. And despite concerns about free listening hurting the bottom line , paid subscriptions were the star of the show. While ad-based streaming pulled in 30.6 percent more cash versus 2014, paid subscriptions jumped 52.3 percent — suddenly, forking over $10 a month for unlimited music wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. The label-backed organization partly credits the boost to the rise of new entrants like Apple Music and Tidal . Streaming was simply the hot space last year, and everyone stood to gain whether they were fresh or an incumbent like Spotify . Internet radio (think Pandora and SiriusXM) and music videos also played roles, but only tiny ones. No matter what, online tunes were enough to offset the drop in demand for hard copies, as the entire industry’s revenue grew a modest 0.9 percent. It’s hard to say that streaming will keep growing at the pace it has, since there are only so many people willing to either subscribe or put up with ads. Even so, the data might be enough to have labels changing how they distribute and push music. Rather than treat streaming as just one of multiple options, they may be more likely to steer you toward the on-demand services first and foremost. Via: Wall Street Journal Source: RIAA

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Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

First Hidden Electric Motor In Cycling World Championship

An anonymous reader writes with the story that the world championship cyclocross competition this weekend in Zolder (Belgium) was scandalized by the first case of “mechanical doping.” European champion Femke Van Den Driessche was caught with a bicycle with a hidden electric motor. From the article: The Union Cycliste Internationale said in a statement âoethat pursuant to the UCIâ(TM)s Regulations on technological fraud a bike has been detained for further investigation following checks at the Womenâ(TM)s Under 23 race of the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. This does not concern any of the riders on the podium. Further details will be shared in due course.â The Belgian media outlet Sporza reported that the Belgian Cycling Federation had confirmed that the detained bike belonged to Van den Driessche. Ironically, Van den Driessche had abandoned the race due to a mechanical issue shortly before the bike was scrutinised. Van den Driesscheâ(TM)s name did not feature in the official results on the UCI website on Saturday evening. Cyclocross Magazine adds some details. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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First Hidden Electric Motor In Cycling World Championship

GCHQ used fake Slashdot, LinkedIn to target employees at Internet exchanges

A new Snowden leak, reported by Laura Poitras in Der Spiegel , shows that the UK spy agency GCHQ used fake versions of Slashdot and LinkedIn to attack tech staff at Global Roaming Exchanges — interchange points where large networks meet up. It’s speculated that the attacks were used to compromise Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS) . GRX is roughly analogous to an IX (Internet Exchange), and it acts as a major exchange for mobile Internet traffic while users roam around the globe. There are only around two dozen such GRX providers globally. This new attack specifically targeted administrators and engineers of Comfone and Mach (which was acquired over the summer by Syniverse), two GRX providers. Der Spiegel suggests that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British sister agency to the NSA, used spoofed versions of LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to serve malware to targets. This type of attack was also used to target “nine salaried employees” of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global oil cartel. This new revelation may be related to an attack earlier this year against Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a subsidiary of the Belgian telecom giant Belgacom. BICS is another one of the few GRX providers worldwide. UK spies continue “quantum insert” attack via LinkedIn, Slashdot pages [Cyrus Farivar/Ars Technica] ( via TechDirt )        

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GCHQ used fake Slashdot, LinkedIn to target employees at Internet exchanges