On October 21, 2016, three consecutivedistributed denial-of-service attacks were launched against theDomain Name System (DNS) providerDyn. The attack caused major Internet platforms and services to be unavailable to large swathes of users in Europe and North America.[3][4] The groupsAnonymous and New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack, but scant evidence was provided.[5]
TheUS Department of Homeland Security started an investigation into the attacks, according to aWhite House source.[30][31][32] No group of hackers claimed responsibility during or in the immediate aftermath of the attack.[33] Dyn's chief strategist Kyle York said in an interview that the assaults on the company's servers were very complex and unlike everyday DDoS attacks.[34]Barbara Simons, a member of the advisory board of the United StatesElection Assistance Commission, said such attacks could affectelectronic voting for overseas military or civilians.[34]
Dyn disclosed that, according to business risk intelligence firm FlashPoint andAkamai Technologies, the attack was abotnet coordinated through numerousInternet of Things-enabled (IoT) devices, includingcameras,residential gateways, andbaby monitors, that had been infected withMirai malware. The attribution of the attack to the Mirai botnet had been previously reported by BackConnect Inc., another security firm.[35] Dyn stated that they were receiving malicious requests from tens of millions ofIP addresses.[6][36] Mirai is designed tobrute-force the security on an IoT device, allowing it to be controlled remotely.
Cybersecurity investigatorBrian Krebs noted that the source code for Mirai had been released onto the Internet in anopen-source manner some weeks prior, which made the investigation of the perpetrator more difficult.[37]
On 25 October 2016, US President Obama stated that the investigators still had no idea who carried out the cyberattack.[38]
On 13 December 2017, the Justice Department announced that three men (Paras Jha, 21, Josiah White, 20, and Dalton Norman, 21) had entered guilty pleas in cybercrime cases relating to the Mirai and clickfraud botnets.[39]
In correspondence with the websitePolitico,hacktivist groups SpainSquad,Anonymous, and New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack in retaliation againstEcuador's rescinding Internet access toWikiLeaks founderJulian Assange, at theirembassy in London, where he had been grantedasylum.[5] This claim has yet to be confirmed.[5] WikiLeaks alluded to the attack onTwitter, tweeting "Mr. Assange is still alive and WikiLeaks is still publishing. We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point."[40] New World Hackers has claimed responsibility in the past for similar attacks targeting sites likeBBC andESPN.com.[41]
On October 26, FlashPoint stated that the attack was most likely done byscript kiddies.[42]
On December 9, 2020, one of the perpetrators pleaded guilty to taking part in the attack. The perpetrator's name was withheld due to his or her age.[43]
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