Grand jury indicts two Europeans over denial-of-service attacks in 2003
DDOS indictments come four years after two U.S. residents were charged in same attacks
By Jeremy KirkOctober 3, 2008 (IDG News Service) A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted two European men for allegedly orchestrating distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks against a pair of U.S.-based Web sites in 2003.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictments yesterday. Two U.S. residents were charged in connection with the same attacks in 2004, in what the DOJ describes as its first successful investigation of large-scale DDOS attacks waged against Web sites for commercial purposes.
The men indicted yesterday face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of charges of conspiracy and intentionally damaging a computer system, according to the DOJ. One of them, a 25-year-old German named Axel Gembe, is believed to be the programmer behind Agobot, a well-known malware program used to create botnets of compromised PCs.
Charged along with Gembe was Lee Graham Walker, a 24-year-old from England. The two were allegedly hired to carry out DDOS attacks by Jay R. Echouafni, who was the owner of Orbit Communications Corp., which sold home satellite systems. The DOJ said that the attacks targeted the Web sites of two of Orbit's competitors, Miami-based Rapid Satellite and Los Angeles-based Weaknees.
The attacks halted Weaknees' business for two weeks in October 2003, causing the company $200,000 in losses, the DOJ said, adding that Rapid Satellite also suffered business losses as a result of the attacks.
Echouafni, a Moroccan native who also uses the first name Saad, was one of the men charged in 2004; he remains at large and may have fled to Morocco, according to the FBI. The second man charged then, Paul Ashley, who prosecutors describe as one of Echouafni's business associates, pleaded guilty and has already completed a two-year prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy.
The new indictments allege that Echouafni ordered Ashley to block access to the rival Web sites, and that Ashley in turn asked Walker "and others" to launch DDOS attacks against the sites. Walker allegedly used a botnet that he created along with Gembe to carry out the attacks. According to the indictment, the two communicated via Internet Relay Chat to discuss ways to make the code behind the botnet more powerful and damaging to Web sites.
As part of the attacks, computers in the botnet were allegedly used to send a flood of syn — short for synchronization — data packets to both Web sites. Syn packets initiate communication between two computers, but they can be configured with false information and then sent in an overwhelming stream to jam up the receiving server. The DOJ said that Gembe's botnet could also direct large amounts of HTTP traffic toward a Web site, which has the same damaging effect.
Source : computerworld.com
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictments yesterday. Two U.S. residents were charged in connection with the same attacks in 2004, in what the DOJ describes as its first successful investigation of large-scale DDOS attacks waged against Web sites for commercial purposes.
The men indicted yesterday face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of charges of conspiracy and intentionally damaging a computer system, according to the DOJ. One of them, a 25-year-old German named Axel Gembe, is believed to be the programmer behind Agobot, a well-known malware program used to create botnets of compromised PCs.
Charged along with Gembe was Lee Graham Walker, a 24-year-old from England. The two were allegedly hired to carry out DDOS attacks by Jay R. Echouafni, who was the owner of Orbit Communications Corp., which sold home satellite systems. The DOJ said that the attacks targeted the Web sites of two of Orbit's competitors, Miami-based Rapid Satellite and Los Angeles-based Weaknees.
The attacks halted Weaknees' business for two weeks in October 2003, causing the company $200,000 in losses, the DOJ said, adding that Rapid Satellite also suffered business losses as a result of the attacks.
Echouafni, a Moroccan native who also uses the first name Saad, was one of the men charged in 2004; he remains at large and may have fled to Morocco, according to the FBI. The second man charged then, Paul Ashley, who prosecutors describe as one of Echouafni's business associates, pleaded guilty and has already completed a two-year prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy.
The new indictments allege that Echouafni ordered Ashley to block access to the rival Web sites, and that Ashley in turn asked Walker "and others" to launch DDOS attacks against the sites. Walker allegedly used a botnet that he created along with Gembe to carry out the attacks. According to the indictment, the two communicated via Internet Relay Chat to discuss ways to make the code behind the botnet more powerful and damaging to Web sites.
As part of the attacks, computers in the botnet were allegedly used to send a flood of syn — short for synchronization — data packets to both Web sites. Syn packets initiate communication between two computers, but they can be configured with false information and then sent in an overwhelming stream to jam up the receiving server. The DOJ said that Gembe's botnet could also direct large amounts of HTTP traffic toward a Web site, which has the same damaging effect.
Source : computerworld.com
