Two European Men Caught for DDoS Attacks on US Sites

On October 2, 2008, a federal jury in the city of Los Angeles, US, indicted two European men for launching DDoS (Denial-of-Service) attacks against two US Websites.

As per the US Department of Justice, Axel Gembe is a German, aged 25. He is suspected for programming Agobot, popular malware software used to make botnets of hacked systems. Another man was Lee Graham Walker, aged 24, from England. He used a botnet made by him along with Axel to launch the harmful attacks.

Also, both of them were hired by Jay R. Echouafni, the proprietor of Orbit Communications Corp., which sells home satellite system, to conduct DDoS attacks. The Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that attacks were targeted at the two competitors of Orbit - Weakness, situated in Los Angeles, and Miami based Rapid Satellite.

DOJ further reveals that during October 2003 when Gembe targeted the business of Weakness, he caused the organization a loss of $200,000. Rapid Satellite also witnessed major losses because of these attacks.

Further, as per the indictment by the court, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), used for group communication, was used to discuss methods to develop the code, responsible for the botnet, stronger and harmful to attack sites. In the DDoS attack, systems infected with the botnet are made to deliver huge sum of data traffic to targeted Websites. Also, this made the site unavailable because of overloading.

Also, during the attacks, botnet computers were used to deliver a series of synchronization data packets on both the sites. Synchronization data packets start interaction between two systems and they could be configured with fake details. Fake details are delivered in a huge stream to restrict the server receiving it. The DOJ also reveals that the botnet of Gembe can direct huge amount of HTTP traffic towards a site which could cause similar disastrous effect.

The DOJ added that the men inducted could face 15 years imprisonment if convicted for charges of conspiracy and intentionally destroying a computer system.

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