JOHANNESBURG, ADMINISTRATORS of South Africa’s Internet Exchanges (INXs) have joined the global fight against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that have in recent weeks.

Internet service providers (ISPs) have been on the receiving end of the attacks blamed on organised criminal syndicates.

INXs are creating a so-called ‘blackhole’ that will funnel identified DDoS traffic passing through the exchanges into oblivion.

The South African internet will be better protected against DDoS attacks during the course of 2020, assured Guy Halse, co-chair of South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA).

He said all as local ISPs peering at Johannesburg (JINX), Cape Town (CINX) and Durban (DINX) begin directing malicious traffic down a defensive blackhole.

DDoS attacks are a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic.

Hackers use multiple compromised computer systems as attack launchpads to prevent regular internet traffic from arriving at its desired destination.

Each infected connected device becomes a ‘bot’ that is linked up to other bots, creating a coordinated, remote-controlled ‘botnet’.

Victim websites are targeted by the botnet which transmits an overwhelming number of requests to the victim’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, resulting in a distributed denial-of-service to normal web traffic.

South African internet consumers have been urged to play a part in safeguarding the local web.

Being careful to always source apps from legitimate app stores while making sure to read the comments, permissions and terms and conditions of individual apps will help ensure users do not inadvertently download the malware that powers DDoS attacks, Halse advsised.

He said DDoS attacks were a clear threat to the entire South African internet ecosystem.

ISPA and its partners will continue to tackle this particular challenge with renewed vigour in 2020, Halse concluded.

Source: CAJ News Agency