Hackers attack Time Warner Cable’s Internet service

Orange County Register ^ | February 26th, 2009, 9:15 am | Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I’ve been receiving complaints from readers who are Time Warner customers and, apparently, this is serious stuff.

Jeff Simmermon, Time Warner’s director of digital communications, said its DNS servers (the system that matches easy-to-remember web addresses to the corresponding numbers — such as ocregister.com instead of numbers) have targeted by ”denial of service” attacks for seven days. Without these translations functioning, web browsers are unable to locate their destinations.

In a message, Simmermon said “hackers have launched a series of DOS attacks on Time Warner Cable’s DNS servers, affecting customer experience in our Southern California and National regions.”

It ain’t pretty, he said. Customers are being affected and getting intermittent error notices like “page cannot be displayed” when looking up a site online.

Reached this morning, Simmermon said that Time Warner isn’t going to ignore this.

“This is a crime that is being perpetrated on us. It’s a big deal and it’s affecting a lot of our customers. We will prosecute,” he said.

Customers should be getting an e-mail on this later today, he said.

Here is the rest of his earlier message:

These attacks are not uncommon, especially for a network as large as ours. However, this particular series of attacks has been larger and more difficult to contain than similar attacks in the past. We suspect that the attackers are using “zombie computers,” or hijacking unsuspecting subscribers’ machines to perpetuate the attack without its owner’s knowledge.

As of 6PM EST on Feb. 24th, we have amplified and expanded early detection and response to this sort of problem.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I had wondered what was going on....Lately my connections...to Free Republic have been Good.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

some History....

[CyberAnt]

Same here .. My computer was attacked just the other evening, but thank goodness I have Norton and they stopped it dead in it’s tracks. It was an “Executable file download”.

Hmmmm ..?? I’ve been wondering why my RoadRunner was acting up. I used disk clean-up as well as cleaner.com and then defraged a couple of times. It seems much better today.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I didn’t do it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I was out at Fry’s yesterday and a Direct TV guy was making me a good deal and I cut him off....was concentrating on something else...wish I had shown more interest...wonder if he is out there today...

[chuck_the_tv_out]

There are FReepers using Time Warner?????

[relictele]

Sorry but what does DirecTV have to do with a cable/broadband Internet DNS problem?

[Nervous Tick]

>> There are FReepers using Time Warner?????

Well, RoadRunner billed by Time Warner.

Why is that so surprising?

[relictele]

In order to bypass the problem I see no reason to use Time Warner’s DNS servers on a client machine especially in the short term...lists of DNS servers from all over the nation/world are readily available online. Substitute the automatic or ISP-assigned DNS values for hard-coded ones of your choosing and off you go.

It may be a minor violation of netiquette and possibly a violation of TW/RR’s TOS but TW/RR probably have bigger fish to fry right now and the substitute DNS servers should be well up to the task temporarily.

[bboop]

We’re in So Cal with roadrunner, have been offline most of the week. We rebooted the router and it helped, but it happened again and again. hmmm.

[proxy_user]

There is not reason why you should use Time-Warner’s DNS servers just because you use their internet, and they certainly don’t care whose DNS you use.

There is free open DNS available to however wants to use it:

https://www.opendns.com/start/

[chuck_the_tv_out]

if there was one company we should be boycotting, it would be AOL Time Warner, that saudi-controlled terrorist mouthpiece

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This:

Order fast, reliable and secure high-speed Internet service though DIRECTV.

Not sure what it costs.

[Nervous Tick]

I see.

Sorry about that. Cable is pretty much my only viable choice for broadband. But if you’ll pay the additional $350 per month and the reconnect fee, I’ll see if I can get my T1 reconnected.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks.

[relictele]

Looks like they are reselling DSL service based on the fine print.

I get calls all the time from Verizon offering $17.99/month for DSL. My cable is much faster than their DSL so no deal but assuming your residence is within the DSL service territory it seems a win-win to move away from dial-up if that’s what you have.

[DesertRhino]

OK, seriously. No kidding. I would support the death penalty for someone who deliberately launches one of these viruses. Denial of service attacks,, maybe a long jail term?

But for a virus,,DEATH!

[Syntyr]

www.opendns.com

Great DNS replacement. Also lets you filter all kinds of categories of content and lots of malicious websites.

[leonid]

Same here .. My computer was attacked just the other evening, but thank goodness I have Norton and they stopped it dead in it’s tracks. It was an “Executable file download”. I don't understand how people still manage to download things that harm their computers.. It's almost 2010!

I haven't used an anti-virus since probably 2002 and I haven't gotten a single virus. I used to do spyware searches when I still used InternetExploder (IE) but when Phoenix/FireBird/FireFox came out.. there was no need to use it anymore thanks to nightly FF builds
I still scan every now and then to see whats going on but I never find anything fishy.
If I were a gambler, I'd bet that 90% of "viruses"/other malicious files/scripts that find their way onto peoples' computers were put there by the users who download stuff they aren't supposed to. The other 10% is the rare (but hard-hitting) 0day OS/Browser/Flash/Interpreter exploit that usually gets patched seconds after its found.

Really man, just a tip.. Stay away from fishy things. All there is to it! My teeth should be gone for all the times I've gritted them against each other when some kid or older person comes in the shop with a computer full of viruses because they clicked ads or downloaded (pirated) software.

I saw a job ad a while back for some sort of music business that pays people to upload music and other files to p2p networks that have keyloggers and virii in them.. :p

[CyberAnt]

Well .. I am happy with IE and Norton anti-virus. They have never let me down.

And .. your comment tells me that you assume that I was trying to download something I shouldn’t be .. and that’s why I got attacked. H E L L O !!! I have Time Warner’s Road Runner - that’s why I was attacked. I know Time Warner has it’s own anti-virus - but I don’t use it - I use Norton.

And .. for what it’s worth .. my son has his own business upgrading computers .. and he has trained me well. I rarely download anything .. and I particularly don’t download stuff that’s illegal in the first place, or when I don’t know where the download is coming from. Friends send me stuff to download all the time - and it’s very seldom that I do.

So .. I have no desire to switch to FireFox.