Counter crime agencies in United States (U.S), United Kingdom (U.K) and other European countries have initiated investigation into a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that disrupted websites of Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, VISA and PostFinance and several others. The attacks were launched by hacktivists supporting WikiLeaks in response to suspension of services by these companies to WikiLeaks. While law enforcement agencies in U.K arrested five people, counter crime agencies in Netherlands arrested two suspects for the alleged attacks. Counter crime agencies in France and Germany are also investigating the attacks on the websites. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued over forty search warrants throughout U.S as part of the inquiry. FBI is coordinating with law enforcement authorities of European countries to track down the culprits.
The purpose behind DDoS attacks is to make services of the websites unavailable to their users. The networks are flooded with numerous information requests causing complete disruption of services. The targeted companies had withdrawn their services to WikiLeaks after the latter's controversial disclosure of U.S State Department's diplomatic cables.
A group named Anonymous had claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group is also believed to be behind the recent attacks on Tunisian and Egyptian government websites. Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), a network stress-testing tool is reported to have been used for launching DDoS attacks on the targeted websites. One of the major challenges faced by investigative authorities is that cybercrime may be initiated from any part of the world and definitions of crime change across borders. Usually, professionals who have undertaken computer forensic training help organizations tracing the crime trail. In this case, experts from the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance are assisting the investigative agencies in tracing the culprits.
Cybercrime incidents are growing at an alarming rate. Timely conviction of offenders is crucial to discourage Internet crime. Lack of admissible evidence is one of the causes, which allows offenders to escape punishment. Therefore, early detection of attack and protection of evidence assumes high significance. Lack of awareness makes employees restart or format a computer, resulting in destruction of volatile evidence. Organizations must encourage IT professional to undertake computer forensics courses for better handling of incidents and initiating appropriate procedures.
Lack of awareness on cybercrime issues and computer forensics among the investigative personnel also hampers the enquiry process. Computer forensics online training may aid counter crime professionals in proactive and early disposal of cybercrime cases.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar