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e October 21st cyber a acks provide a ‘wake-up call’ for insurers and public alike
Waves of online a acks on Domain Name Server (DNS) provider Dyn Inc. blocked access to Twi er, Spo fy, Ne lix, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, The New York Times and various other sites throughout Friday, October 21st.
The cause was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) a ack against Dyn, which as a DNS facilitates the loading of webpages. According to USA Today, the hackers used the malware program Mirai, which can send thousands and even hundreds of thousands of server requests at once, crea ng a ood of fake tra c and overwhelming a DNS.
According to a report from Reuters, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are inves ga ng. This is not news to anybody who has been watching this for a while. It was a ma er of when, not if. The bad guys — the foreign states — have been a emp ng to do what they accomplished today for a long me.