The gaming industry is under attack by a newly discovered botnet named Dark Frost, which has been launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
According to Akamai security researcher Allen West, the Dark Frost botnet has grown rapidly and now compromises hundreds of devices, targeting gaming companies, game server hosting providers, online streamers, and even direct contacts within the gaming community. As of February 2023, the botnet consists of 414 machines running various instruction set architectures.
Dark Frost is an amalgamation of stolen source code from infamous malware strains such as Gafgyt, QBot, and Mirai, making it a formidable and adaptable threat. Akamai’s analysis revealed that the botnet is capable of delivering devastating UDP flood attacks, reaching an estimated attack potential of 629.28 Gbps.
What sets this case apart is the audacity of the threat actor, who not only boasts about their exploits on social media but also shares live recordings of their attacks, leaving digital signatures on their binary files.
The Dark Frost botnet showcases how even cybercriminals with basic coding skills can cause significant harm to enterprises. Despite its lack of groundbreaking techniques, the botnet has managed to amass a large number of compromised devices, highlighting the far-reaching impact such threat actors can have.
The threat actor behind Dark Frost has even established a Discord channel to offer DDoS-for-hire services, indicating both financial motivations and plans to expand their operations. T
his case serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing need for robust cybersecurity measures in the gaming industry.
