Company that prevents DDoS attacks gets hit with world’s largest DDoS attack

A company that is supposed to protect against DDoS attacks just suffered what appears to be the largest one ever. According to IT News, CloudFlare, a content delivery network and security provider, said that the attack reached over 400 Gbps at its peak, 100 Gbps more than the previous record. The attackers appear to have used an increasingly popular method called NTP Reflection, which uses a timing mechanism to greatly amplify the attack.

A content delivery network provider has today been hit by what appears to be the world’s largest denial of service attack, in an assault that exploits an emerging and frightening threat vector. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) Reflection attack exploits a timing mechanism that underpins a way the internet works to greatly amplify the power of what would otherwise be a small and ineffective assault. US-based DDoS protection outfit CloudFlare was hit with the attacks after an unnamed customer was targeted. It is unclear how many websites and users were affected, although at least one French networking host reported a 350Gbps DDoS attack during the assault. CloudFlare chief executive Matthew Prince said the attack tipped 400Gbps, 100Gbps larger than the previous record DDoS attack which used DNS reflective amplification.