Gamification of DDoS attacks
It was only a matter of time:
A Turkish hacking crew is luring participants to join its DDoS platform to compete with peers to earn redeemable points that are exchangeable for hacking tools and click-fraud software. The goal, security researchers say, is to “gamify” DDoS attacks in order to attract a critical mass of hackers working toward a unified goal.
▻https://threatpost.com/hackers-gamify-ddos-attacks-with-collaborative-platform/122290
Hackers are recruited via Turkish Dark Web hacker forums, and to participate in the program they must download the Surface Defense collaboration program and register. Surface Defense runs locally on a computer. Users congregate online within the program and can communicate and compare points they earn.
Next, participants are required to download a DDoS attack tool called Sledgehammer. Sledgehammer is software [with an unadvertised backdoor] that comes preconfigured to perform HTTP-based Slowloris-type DDoS assaults against 24 preselected sites determined by the software’s author.
Users receive a point for every 10 minutes they attack one of the websites. With those point they can obtain hacking software.
The list of websites can be found here
▻https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/turkish-hackers-are-playing-a-ddos-for-points-game
