As plenty of news coverage surrounding the technical difficulties on the Obamacare website continues, a new Denial of Service (DoS) tool has surfaced, designed to cause more disruptions.
Researchers at Arbor Networks recently found the tool designed to perform attacks on the new healthcare website, found at https://www.healthcare.gov
We managed to acquire a sample of the tool. When executed a message is displayed, explaining its purpose.
As reported by Arbor researchers, the tool is written in the Delphi programming language and repeatedly navigates to the following URLs: https://www.healthcare.gov https://www.healthcare.gov/contact-us
Image: Arbor Networks
While the tool may be trying to send a powerful message, realistically, it’s not powerful enough to slow down the healthcare website, or even affect its availability.
It’s no argument that the healthcare reform currently taking place has been a sensitive topic to many Americans since its implementation this October. With that being said, it’s not hard to imagine those who opposed the new law working to add to the current problems the healthcare website already has.
Even still, could this be a starting point for more tools or perhaps even malware that targets the website? Stay tuned for any updates.
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Joshua Cannell is a Malware Intelligence Analyst at Malwarebytes where he performs research and in-depth analysis on current malware threats. He has over 5 years of experience working with US defense intelligence agencies where he analyzed malware and developed defense strategies through reverse engineering techniques. His articles on the Unpacked blog feature the latest news in malware as well as full-length technical analysis. Follow him on Twitter @joshcannell
