MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) —— The DDos attacks against information sites on the day of elections to the State Duma featured up to 200,000 infected computers, Yandex’ specialist in information security Vladimir Ivanov told audience of the Ekho Moskvy /Echo of Moscow/ radio station, which site was unavailable for users during the entire day of December 4 due to the attack. Now the sites are back to work.
“All attacks of the kind are coordinated from one centre: many computers managed by one operator make certain actions towards the site,” he explained. The expert did not rule out that one of the reasons the sites ‘failed’ was that users’ activity on the day of the elections was very high. “No doubt, the number of users on that day grew, but it is not probable that the growth was so big that it could cause such consequences.”
Organisation of such an attack might have cost several thousand dollars, he said, which is not expensive. It is possible, though quite complicated, to figure out the organiser, he said. “It is possible to find during an attack one of participating computers and to find out, from where he is receiving instructions,” Ivanov explained. “After that, it would be necessary to find out who managers that server.” In order to avoid such failures, Ivanov suggested using software to make a site more resistible to high demand.
According to leading analyst at Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtasin, “DDos attacks are business instruments for competition on the net, which is worth pennies.” The expert says that media sites, which had been attacked, were not ready for an incident of the kind.
Hacker attacks failed site of the Echo of Moscow radio station, the Kommersant daily, as well as the Zhivoy Zhurnal and Slon.ru. Chief Editor of the Echo of Moscow Alexei Venediktov said that the attacks’ objective was to affect flow of information referring the elections.
“The first thing I have done is I have informed press secretaries of the president and the prime minister about the hacker attacks on the site of the radio station and about my ideas, who may be behind them, and about what I am going to undertake,” Venediktov said. “Secondly, our lawyers prepare a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office, to Department K of the Interior Ministry and to the Central Elections Commission. Thirdly, security service of the Gazprom group, which has many opportunities, is joining the investigation. I have discussed it with Chairman of the Board Nikolai Senkevich. We decided jointly that Gazprom’s security service should organise an investigation. I would like to remind to anyone who it may concern that besides article 272 of the Criminal Code on illegal penetration in electronic systems, there is article 144 of the Criminal Code about prevention of distribution of information and professional activities of journalists, which suggests punishment of up to six years’ imprisonment.”