"Tel Aviv University and IDC Herzliya Researchers Thwart Large-Scale Cyberattack Threat"

Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) of Herzliya say that vulnerabilities in the Domain Name System (DNS) could have been used to execute a much more massive attack than that of the infamous Mirai botnet. A study conducted by the researchers shares new details about a technique called "NXNSAttack" (Non-Existent Name Server Attack), which abuses the vulnerabilities contained by commonly used DNS software. Malicious actors could have applied the threatening method to execute distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a larger scale using a relatively small number of computers. Several makers of the DNS software, in addition to companies responsible for the Internet's infrastructure, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dyn, were notified about these findings, which led to software updates to address the problem. This article continues to discuss the Mirai botnet's impact in 2016, the NXNSAttack technique, and the research behind this method. 

EurekAlert! "Tel Aviv University and IDC Herzliya Researchers Thwart Large-Scale Cyberattack Threat"