Feds disrupt monster IoT botnets behind record-breaking DDoS attacks

The US government has moved to disrupt a cluster of IoT botnets behind some of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded, including traffic bursts topping 30 terabits per second.

In a coordinated operation with authorities in Germany and Canada, the Department of Justice said it disrupted the command-and-control infrastructure behind four botnets – Aisuru, KimWolf, JackSkid, and Mossad – that together compromised more than three million internet-connected devices worldwide.

The botnets largely spread across the usual soft underbelly of the internet, including routers, IP cameras, and digital video recorders that are often shipped with weak credentials and rarely patched.

According to the DOJ, the botnets were responsible for hundreds of thousands of DDoS attacks, some of which targeted US Department of Defense systems and other high-value targets. Their scale, however, is what sets them apart. Officials said the networks were capable of generating traffic volumes exceeding 30 Tbps, with one attack peaking ...