The DDoS That Almost Broke the Internet

The New York Times reported on a massive DDoS attack against Spamhaus, which was mitigated by CloudFlare. This attack is considered the largest known attack ever on the Internet. Initially, it sent 85Gbps of traffic, but later increased to more than 100Gbps. The attackers changed their tactics and targeted network providers used by CloudFlare for bandwidth. They also attacked the infrastructure of several major internet exchanges (IXs), causing congestion across multiple Tier 1 networks in Europe. This incident exposed vulnerabilities in the architecture of some IXs, prompting suggestions to improve security measures. The attack highlighted the problem of open DNS recursors and their potential threat to the stability of the Internet.