Cyberwarfare in Real Time

[Virgil Showlion]

China has apparently taken down the NYSX as well as several major news sites. The attack may be related to the China stock market plunge, although this is highly speculative.

Real-time monitoring of the attack is viewable here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attack of this scale.


ETA: The stock exchange is blaming software problems for the crash. It's worth noting that the exchange always cites "software problems" when it crashes, but the timing of this particular crash may indeed be coincidental.

[Wisconsin Beth]

So why is St. Louis a big target? 

[Peace77]

It was just announced that the stock market is back open.  They said the glitch was related to a software upgrade that was loaded last night.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 8, 2015 14:13:56 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

So why is St. Louis a big target? 

Federal Reserve?

[Wisconsin Beth]

I guess but there's Federal Reserves in what, 9 other cities in the US?  And they're not showing up as highly attacked at St. Louis is. 

[The Captain]

Jul 8, 2015 13:30:20 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

China has apparently taken down the NYSX as well as several major news sites. The attack may be related to the China stock market plunge, although this is highly speculative.

Real-time monitoring of the attack is viewable here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attack of this scale.


ETA: The stock exchange is blaming software problems for the crash. It's worth noting that the exchange always cites "software problems" when it crashes, but the timing of this particular crash may indeed be coincidental.

Ok, looks like some of the old vector graphic games I used to play.

I can't find a source or link explaining how they compile the information.  Do you by any chance have a link for that?  I'd like to understand how the information is compiled, and if it is this easy to track, why there aren't better firewalls in place.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I saw a report that said the NYSE was back up and running around 3pm (I assume EST) so I'm thinking this is actually the normal/daily attacks coming out of China. 

[djAdvocate]

Jul 8, 2015 14:28:58 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I guess but there's Federal Reserves in what, 9 other cities in the US?  And they're not showing up as highly attacked at St. Louis is. 

i think the St. Louis one is the main one, but i might be mistaken.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 8, 2015 14:59:54 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I saw a report that said the NYSE was back up and running around 3pm (I assume EST) so I'm thinking this is actually the normal/daily attacks coming out of China. 

software upgrade, according to NASD.

[wvugurl26]

United was blaming software on the back end for grounding their flights. Not sure if it was related.

[The Captain]

Ok, something I just noticed...at least while I was watching...

Spain and Bulgaria are targeted multiple times, but not one.single.target. on Canada, really?

Just really?

And why would Japan be pounding the US more than Russia or China?  I thought we were friends?

(And yes, I know there are ways to hack and mirror other IP addresses, just having some fun).

[djAdvocate]

Dow might hit a 5 month low today.........

edit: i should have said ANOTHER.  it hit one YESTERDAY.  it didn't hit another low.  17,500 held.  but this was a broad selloff.

[Wisconsin Beth]

1. Do we know what the daily attack level is?  I'm thinking there's a level of attack that's kind of like background radiation - 10 attacks an hour is "normal" and 100 is up and a 1,000 is massive. 
2. Are these attacks actually successful or is this attacks caught/defended against? 
3. As a subset of question 2. are we sure this is ALL attacks or just the ones being caught by software and/or hardware? 
4.  Virgil's site is moving pretty rapidly but this is AFTER the NYSE is back up and running.  What did this look like around the time the NYSE went down? 

[fairlycrazy23]

A lot of these attacks may be coming from computers that are infected and the owners may not even know they are doing it.

[happyhoix]

Hmm China might be attacking us because they're pissed their stock market is down?

Is that a possible thing, that US banks might be dumping Chinese stocks in concert in order to screw with them?

[mmhmm]

Jul 8, 2015 14:58:30 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jul 8, 2015 13:30:20 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

China has apparently taken down the NYSX as well as several major news sites. The attack may be related to the China stock market plunge, although this is highly speculative.

Real-time monitoring of the attack is viewable here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attack of this scale.


ETA: The stock exchange is blaming software problems for the crash. It's worth noting that the exchange always cites "software problems" when it crashes, but the timing of this particular crash may indeed be coincidental.

Ok, looks like some of the old vector graphic games I used to play.

I can't find a source or link explaining how they compile the information.  Do you by any chance have a link for that?  I'd like to understand how the information is compiled, and if it is this easy to track, why there aren't better firewalls in place.

You might try HERE.

[mmhmm]

Jul 8, 2015 15:14:30 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

1. Do we know what the daily attack level is?  I'm thinking there's a level of attack that's kind of like background radiation - 10 attacks an hour is "normal" and 100 is up and a 1,000 is massive. 
2. Are these attacks actually successful or is this attacks caught/defended against? 
3. As a subset of question 2. are we sure this is ALL attacks or just the ones being caught by software and/or hardware? 
4.  Virgil's site is moving pretty rapidly but this is AFTER the NYSE is back up and running.  What did this look like around the time the NYSE went down? 

Norse IP-Viking always looks a lot like that. There are times when it's quieter and times when it's busier. Just depends on what's going on.  Something is always going on and China, for the record, has more infected computers than anyplace else, from what I've read. Older computers are common as are computers with no protection (so, easily infected).

Also, it doesn't claim to be all the attacks. Just a percentage of them. Don't know about the success factor. 

[Virgil Showlion]

Jul 8, 2015 14:58:30 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jul 8, 2015 13:30:20 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

China has apparently taken down the NYSX as well as several major news sites. The attack may be related to the China stock market plunge, although this is highly speculative.

Real-time monitoring of the attack is viewable here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attack of this scale.


ETA: The stock exchange is blaming software problems for the crash. It's worth noting that the exchange always cites "software problems" when it crashes, but the timing of this particular crash may indeed be coincidental.

Ok, looks like some of the old vector graphic games I used to play.

I can't find a source or link explaining how they compile the information.  Do you by any chance have a link for that?  I'd like to understand how the information is compiled, and if it is this easy to track, why there aren't better firewalls in place.

There's an "i" button on the right side of a circular panel at the bottom right of the display. It brings up a bit more information about how Norse compiles the data. It appears they have what are called "honeypot" routers set up worldwide, which try to appear "appealing" to specific networks by giving them favourable routing times. As a result, attacking networks send at least a portion of their payload through these routers, allowing Norse to track them to some degree.

As for the target of the attacks, I immediately thought of the St. Louis Fed too. I mean... there really isn't anything else in St. Louis.

As for which of the crashes today were caused by the attack, we'll never know. The policy is to always blame internal problems when possible, since admitting that a crash was brought about externally screams "I am vulnerable; please attack me for the sheer fun of it", or "I am vulnerable; if you hate me for some reason, come on down".