A new DDoS-as-a-Service (DDoSaaS) platform named ‘Passion’ was seen used in recent attacks by pro-Russian hacktivists against medical institutions in the United States and Europe.
A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack is when threat actors send many requests and garbage traffic to a target server to overwhelm the server and cause it to stop responding to legitimate requests.
DDoSaaS platforms rent their available firepower to those looking to launch disruptive attacks on their targets, absolving them from the need to build their own large botnets or coordinate volunteer action.
Typically, these botnets are built by compromising vulnerable IoT devices such as routers and IP cameras, uniting them under a large swarm that generates malicious requests toward a particular target.
Radware discovered the Passion platform, and although its origins are unknown, the operation has distinctive ties with Russian hacking groups, suck as Killnet, MIRAI, Venom, and Anonymous Russia.
