Hackers Go Retro, Turn To Telnet For Attacks
Written by Frank HayesJanuary 26th, 2011
Sometimes the oldies really can make a comeback. For some reason, thieves are now increasingly using the 40-year-old text-based Telnet protocol to attack corporate servers, according to network-services vendor Akamai, whose retail customers include Amazon.com, Best Buy, JCPenney and Staples. Akamai says Telnet now represents the second-heaviest level of Internet attack traffic—and the Telnet attacks are still growing.
This sort of retro attack (it's like the Pong of computer break-ins) would be charming, except that it's growing rapidly. A year ago, almost no attackers used Telnet. But by the third quarter of 2010 (the last period for which Akamai has released data), Telnet attacks had jumped to one out of every six attacks.
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