DDoS Attack Disrupts Ubuntu and Canonical Services

A group of hacktivists has claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that has impacted the public infrastructure of Ubuntu and its developer, Canonical. The attack commenced on Thursday, affecting critical services utilized by Ubuntu users.

In a statement on their website, Canonical acknowledged the ongoing attack, stating, "Canonical’s web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack and we are working to address it. We will provide more information in our official channels as soon as we are able to."

The attack is characterized as a DDoS, which overwhelms a target with excessive traffic, leading to service disruptions. Discussions among Ubuntu developers on an unofficial community forum reveal that the attack has compromised Ubuntu’s security API and various Canonical websites, hindering users from updating or installing the operating system. Reports confirm that updates have failed on devices running Ubuntu.

As of now, the outage has persisted for approximately 20 hours. Canonical has not yet responded to inquiries for further details.

The hacktivist group known as The Islamic Cyber Resistance in Iraq 313 Team has claimed responsibility for the attack via their Telegram channel. They reportedly utilized a DDoS-for-hire service called Beamed, which allows individuals to launch DDoS attacks without technical expertise. This particular service claims to facilitate attacks exceeding 3.5 Tbps, which is significant compared to previous large-scale DDoS incidents.

Authorities, including the FBI and Europol, have been actively working to combat such services, often shutting down operations and making arrests to mitigate the threat posed by DDoS attacks.