High-tech crime investigators tackle BigPond assault

BigPond, Australia's largest Internet service provider (ISP), has asked the Australian High Tech Crime Centre to investigate recent attacks on its domain name server (DNS) system from Trojan-infested PCs.

The Telstra-owned ISP has been temporarily disconnecting compromised computers from its network to stem a tide of bogus DNS requests swamping its servers and delaying customer e-mail and Web site requests. A spokesperson confirmed in a statement today BigPond was "continuing to identify and remove Trojan-affected PCs from its network," but declined to say how many were being disconnected.

According to the statement, the malware problem was not restricted to BigPond's network and the provider hoped to implement an 'engineering solution' that would improve its service.

"BigPond is just one of a number of ISPs worldwide being affected by this issue... This week we are implementing an engineering solution that we believe will significantly reduce the impact of the issue. This matter has been referred to the [AHTCC] as part of our efforts to identify the perpetrator(s)," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to comment on what the engineering solution was, citing an unwillingness to give people with malicious intentions information they could use to subvert Telstra's systems.

He said the carrier had provided additional information to the AHTCC today on the matter, but declined to disclose any further details.

He also declined to name other ISPs being affected, but acknowledged some had contacted Telstra directly over the matter.

BigPond said it wanted to reassure its customers it had been giving "top priority to resolving the inconvenience some of them have been experiencing as a result [of the attacks]".

Advertisement

Talkback 1 comments

    I'll be very surprised if it i ...Anonymous -- 19/04/05

    I'll be very surprised if it isn't "All talk & no action" as usual! Why wait until it cripples their servers?

    The "Mad hatters tea party" is at it again. ie; moving the chairs, but that's all! (for further reference; read Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland")@
    http://www.cs.indiana.edu/metastuff/wonder/ch7.html

Latest Videos

Sponsored content

Power Centre - Content from our premier sponsors

Blogs

  • Chris Duckett Get extensions going in Firefox, redux
    Previously on Null Pointer we looked at getting extensions working in Firefox betas, and that was great until the fine folks at Firefox changed their minds.
  • Array How reliable is IP telephony?
    Have you ever heard a weird kind of hissing, crackling or popping noise when calling someone on an IP telephony line? How rare is the phenomenon these days?
  • Array Forget the NBN, 100Mbps is already here
    Telstra and TransACT will shortly begin offering 100Mbps broadband to many customers. By moving early, the companies have not only raised the bar for Australia's broadband services, but thrown down a challenge to a government that now faces increased pressure to deliver the NBN as promised.
  • More blogs »

Tags

Back to top

Featured