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USA Today, TVWeek

Massive Cyber-Attack Hits Major Websites

Oct 21, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Websites including Netflix, Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, Tumblr and Reddit were hit with a massive cyber-attack today, with USA Today reporting that the attack was coming in “multiple waves.”

The attack made it impossible at times for users on the East Coast to access many sites.

“The cause was a large-scale distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) against New Hampshire-based Internet performance company Dyn,” USA Today reports. “The attacks made it difficult for users to access many popular sites beginning at 7:10 a.m. ET and continued throughout the day.”

Kyle York, Dyn’s chief strategy officer, talked about the attack this afternoon on a conference call with reporters, saying: “It’s a very smart attack. We start to mitigate, they react. It keeps on happening every time. We’re learning, though.”

USA Today adds: “The attacks used Mirai, an easy-to-use program that allows even unskilled hackers to take over online devices and use them to launch distributed denial of service, or DDoS attacks. Malware from phishing emails can infect a computer or home network, then spread to everything on it, taking over DVRs, cable set-top boxes, routers and even Internet-connected cameras used by stores and businesses for surveillance.”

Other sites that have been impacted by the attack, according to media reports, include HBO Now, news sites such as the BBC, CNN and The New York Times, Yelp, Pinterest, NHL.com, GitHub, Paypal and Soundcloud.

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