Experiencing slow internet? Your ISP may be under attack

MUMBAI: Have you experienced a painfully slow internet connection for a week? Are webpages loading after a prolonged delay or timing out? Well, you are under attack. Not you directly, but your internet service provider (ISP). An Andheri-based ISP has now lodged an FIR against what is known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack . The cyber police say that it is state-wide and besides being among the largest of its kind in the world, the attack is the first of such a magnitude in India. The perpetrators as of now are unknown.

IT expert Vijay Mukhi says, "The idea of a DDoS is to make a computer or a server very slow so that anyone who uses an ISP's services cannot connect. If you are an ISP like Hathway or Seven Star, your users get very low internet speeds . If you access websites like Flipkart or Amazon, your shopping experience becomes very slow; you may not even be able to shop."

Any cyberattack , in particular a DDoS attack, can be felt by a slowing down of the internet. One will have difficulty opening websites, will see a huge increase in spam and will experience reduced or no access to services like email and net banking.

The FIR (the first in Mumbai against DDoS) was filed by the director of Syscon Infoway, Nikunj Kampani, at the cyber police station at BKC on Saturday, and a case under the IT Act filed against unidentified persons. IG (cyber) Brijesh Singh said, "Big service providers are tackling the attack. Small and medium ISPs are under attack on an unprecedented scale."

Cyber lawyer Prashant Mali said all servers of government and commercial entities access the internet via ISPs. "Thus, an attack on ISPs is an attack on the nation."

As of now, the particulars of the attack point to Eastern Europe and China, he said. "The reason of a DDoS attack is usually business rivalry, but the motive this time seems an attempt to hamper our economic growth by targeting e-commerce."