UK research and education network Janet could be finally beginning to stabilize after a two-day DDoS attack, although its main site remains down.
The government-funded network, which markets itself as “extremely reliable and high bandwidth”, went down shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday morning, disrupting the country’s research community.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), which runs the network, claimed interestingly that it had to reduce its public Twitter updates as there was evidence to suggest the attackers were also using this information to tweak the attack.
It claimed that those customers affected have been contacted privately and are being kept up-to-date via “alternative channels.”
That said, the last tweets posted from a day ago claimed the East Midlands region was beginning to stabilize and that Jisc is “continuing to monitor” the situation.
Jisc added: “various blocks and filtering are being put in place to limit the impact of the disruption, but the details of each attack are subject to change.”
The body’s executive director, Tim Kidd, apologized for the inconvenience.
“We understand the importance of connectivity to colleges, universities and other public sector organisations,” he added in a statement.
“We are doing everything in our power to ensure normal service is resumed as soon as possible, and in the meantime to minimize any disruption that users of the Janet network may be experiencing.”
Mike Hanley, program manager for R&D at Duo Labs, argued that universities are some of the “hottest targets for malicious behavior.”
“Whether it be theft of potentially valuable research or a simpler DoS, the standard university IT department is expected to maintain resource availability and open access even in the face of a wide range of threats,” he added.
The UK is not just a victim when it comes to DDoS attacks. It’s now the number one source of global attack traffic, with a share of 26%, according to the latest Akamai figures.
The US-based CDN provider claimed the UK had soared up the rankings, having doubled its share from the previous quarter but not even made the top 10 a year ago.
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