Israeli firm Bright Data named as enabler of Philippines government DDOS attacks on opposition groups

Swedish digital rights organisation Qurium has alleged that an Israeli company called Bright Data has helped the government of the Philippines to DDOS local human rights organisation Karapatan. In July, Qurium reported that the Philippines Department of Science and Technology and Army had conducted DDOS attacks on local media …

[Anonymous Coward]

Fake DDOS = Fake anti-DDOS

If the DDOS attacks are fake, then so are the man-in-the-middle companies that defend against said fake DDOS attacks.

Do you imagine they just sell your connection data and not the content aswell?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg84yy/data-brokers-netflow-data-team-cymru

Yet so much effort is put in, to putting these companies in between you and your customers.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

I hate to say this, but

It's time for Governments to get involved. There are too many networks claiming high standards of operation while taking in money to host craploads of illegal network abuse. It's at the regional networks, the hosting providers, and all the way up to the Tier 1 transit networks providing hostile networks with connectivity. Their attitude right now is that they absolutely don't care. No working abuse contact of any kind. Criminals pay money, victims don't.

I know the Internet is supposed to be self-healing but there's a practical limit to just how many firewall rules one can maintain. DDoS are difficult to block when there's a crime-friendly network one or two hops upstream. Companies pay CloudFlare or Akamai for protection while they serve the carders, phishers, and C&C systems helping to fund the attacks.

Yeah, the Internet is bad enough that I think Government intervention will make it better. Sad times.

https://www.abuseipdb.com/statistics

https://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/813/spamhaus-botnet-threat-update-q2-2021

[Ropewash]

Re: I hate to say this, but

Read the article. A government certainly did get involved. Perhaps not in the way you are alluding to, but a much more realistic picture of how governments actually get involved.

Don't count on any government to react with anything but 'good idea, how do we exploit it' while also informing the media that they are trying to pass legislation forbidding the exact thing they are currently implementing.

Also, when it comes right down to it, which country gets to legislate anything on a global network that anyone outside that country would listen to? And how well do you trust that country?

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

You know you're in for some fun and games...

...and human rights abuses when the headline begins with "Israeli firm..."

[FILE_ID.DIZ]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

The infosec equivalent to "Florida Man"?

[BebopWeBop]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

Well it could equally well have been a French, British, or US company. In fact, I am sure that bad actors in all three countries would have been happy to be paid....

[Graham Cobb]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

Just because the Israeli government is appalling in several ways, including tolerating some firms who are global pariahs, that does not justify abusing all Israeli firms, just as it wouldn't justify abusing all Israeli citizens.

I certainly would not be happy if people started holding me responsible for the actions of Priti Patel, for example.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

They(the Israeli Gov) can't duck national accountability when they offer a save harbor at a national level. Nether could we(USA) or the Nigerians, Russians, Chinese, NKoreans or for that matter, the French.

Your statement holds to individual Israeli companies, but we still must hold governments accountable for enforcing the rule of law and the buck stops with the government if they are not acting to manage rogue companies inside their borders acting overseas.

Don't misframe this as blanket abuse of innocent Israeli companies due to some anti-israeli or anti-semetic bias. It just enables the bad-actors in companies like NSO, and in the governments shielding them and profiting from their actions.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

Certainly, but a bit of a pattern has formed when Israeli companies make the news in an infosec context

[gandalfcn]

Re: You know you're in for some fun and games...

"I certainly would not be happy if people started holding me responsible for the actions of Priti Patel, for example." Sorry to break it to you, but to many abroad you are.

[Potemkine!]

When a government attacks local human rights organisations, it can be considered as a bad actor.

Surprisingly, I didn't hear about any sanction against the Philippines .

[Anonymous Coward]

The Duterte regime is certainly a bad actor.

Unfortunately we're (PH) in the third world so nobody cares.

[gandalfcn]

And VP (i.e. Pres) for the next few years it seem. What about Manny?

[EricB123]

Third World?

I thought the Philippines was a developing country. Not that labels matter much.

[Pascal Monett]

"formerly known as Luminati Networks"

Oh, the conspiracy theories you could spin out of that !

[PhoenixKebab]

Re: "formerly known as Luminati Networks"

That name looks designed to entice Apple into buying them.

[Anonymous Coward]

What a surprise!

Yet another Israeli firm caught acting on behalf of despots and tyrants around the world and most likely supported by huge chunks of US cash and technical resources.

[FlippingGerman]

Israel

I don't know why, but there seem to be a lot of these "Israeli cybersecutiy firms" doing really dodgy things, although it's quite possible I get that impression because NSO Group comes up so often, and the rest is confirmation bias.