Cryptocurrency craze leads to new DDoS tactics
Business
As the world of cryptocurrencies continues to grow exponentially, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attackers have a new set of targets, namely the exchanges that power cryptocurrency trades, as well as the computer systems used to ‘mine’ cryptocurrencies.
This is according to Bryan Hamman, Arbor Network’s territory manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, who says that the cryptocurrency craze has attracted millions of people around the world. “But unfortunately, it has also attracted the DDoS criminal underworld, as they look to cripple currency exchanges and potentially steal the valuable coins passing through these platforms. “We see a number of worrying cases where DDoS attacks have disrupted the flow of trade on major cryptocurrency exchanges – including the likes of Bitfinex, Bittrex and Poloniex,” he says.
What are cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology?
Cryptocurrencies are essentially virtual currencies that enable individuals and businesses to store and exchange value, without the need for traditional money (so called ‘fiat currency’) and traditional banking infrastructure. While the most famous cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, there are a number of other similar currencies in circulation. They can be exchanged for fiat currency – like US dollars or Rand – on exchange platforms.
Bitcoin and its peers represent a radical departure from the traditional construct of money – which has always been tightly-controlled by national governments (via central banks and very influential monetary policies). Cryptocurrencies are entirely virtual, and completely borderless, while – to a large degree – remaining outside the ambit of policies and laws.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin rely on blockchain technology to operate. To provide a succinct definition, blockchain is a decentralised public ledger that records transactions across multiple computers, so that there is no single record of any transaction. In this way, information is distributed across the network, meaning that nobody is able to tamper with the record of transactions.
Targeting exchanges
Towards the end of 2017, Bitcoin hit mainstream news headlines, surging in value to over $20 000 per ‘coin’. While it has since normalised back to roughly half of that value, the frenzy of excitement over Bitcoin saw many exchanges being flooded with traffic.
In fact, many of the exchanges struggled to handle the massive volumes of people looking to get into the Bitcoin craze. And to make matters even worse, DDoS attackers started to target these exchanges, placing even more pressure on the platforms.
Hamman explains: “DDoS attackers use malware installed on thousands – even millions – of different PCs and other connected devices, essentially hijacking their resources to flood a the targeted exchange’s servers with massive volumes of traffic. “Just like a DDoS attack on any other organisation, these assaults can pull down an exchange’s online systems, bring workflow and mission-critical processes to a halt, disrupt the trades between users, as well as causing untold reputation damage for the exchange.”
Illegal mining
“There is also another DDoS-type technique within the cryptocurrency ecosystem – one that’s even stealthier, and certainly more difficult to prevent – which is causing concern among the crypto community,” notes Hamman. He explains the growing trend of cybercriminals installing crypto-mining tools on victim computers (instead of traditional DDoS malware). This allows them to hijack the resources and systems of the host computers, to power illegal cryptocurrency mining operations.
While the term ‘mining’ may be something of a misnomer, cryptocurrency mining refers to the act of verifying Bitcoin transactions on the network, adding public records to the ledger and ultimately making the records as accurate and indisputable as possible. As a reward for doing this service, miners receive a certain value of bitcoin, which is ‘unearthed’ by the system.
“While bitcoin mining has emerged as a very specialist field, and is of course perfectly legal, the problem we’re seeing is DDoS syndicates shifting their behaviour towards illegal bitcoin mining, “This destabilises the cryptocurrency ecosystem in general, and raises concerns about using blockchain-like technology for other use-cases.”
Hamman is referring to the likes of blockchain-enabled smart contracts and supply-chain innovations which could radically change the way that business value chains and relationships are conducted in the future. “It’s important for cryptocurrency exchanges and professional mining outfits to quickly get on top of the problem, with specialised DDoS prevention tools.”
He points to Arbor’s recent foiling of an attack of almost two terabytes per second, a massive traffic volume that would certainly crush the servers of any organisation that doesn’t have specialised DDoS defences. “If virtual currencies are to truly reach mainstream adoption, and be accepted as an alternative currency to the US dollar and other major currencies, then the ecosystem will need to find ways to dealing with DDoS attacks,” Hamman concludes.
For more information about Arbor in Africa, please contact Bryan Hamman at HYPERLINK "mailto:bhamman@arbor.net" bhamman@arbor.net. About Arbor Networks Arbor Networks, the security division of NETSCOUT, helps secure the world’s largest enterprise and service provider networks from DDoS attacks and advanced threats.
Arbor is the world’s leading provider of DDoS protection in the enterprise, carrier and mobile market segments, according to Infonetics Research. Arbor’s advanced threat solutions deliver complete network visibility through a combination of packet capture and NetFlow technology, enabling the rapid detection and mitigation of malware and malicious insiders.
Arbor also delivers market-leading analytics for dynamic incident response, historical analysis, visualization and forensics. Arbor strives to be a “force multiplier,” making network and security teams the experts. Our goal is to provide a richer picture into networks and more security context so customers can solve problems faster and reduce the risks to their business.
To learn more about Arbor products and services, please follow us on Twitter @ArborNetworks. Arbor’s research, analysis and insight, together with data from the ATLAS global threat intelligence system, can be found at the ATLAS Threat Portal. Trademark Notice: Arbor Networks, the Arbor Networks logo and ATLAS are all trademarks of Arbor Networks, Inc. All other brands may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Business
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The Botswana and Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed distributor of fast-moving consumer goods
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Business
Grit divests from Letlole La Rona
Grit Services Limited, a member of the pan African real estate group, London Stock Exchange listed Grit Real Estate Income Group is divesting from Letlole La Rona Limited (LLR), a local real estate company established by government investment arm Botswana Development Corporation over a decade ago.
The Board of Directors of Letlole La Rona Limited this week announced in a statement to Unitholders that Grit Services Limited (‘Grit’) has informed them of its intention to exit its investment in the company.
Grit has been a material shareholder in LLR since 2019. On 07 March 2023, Grit sold 6 421 000 linked units, representing 2.29% of the Company’s total securities in issue, at a market value of BWP 22 537 710.
This trade follows previous sales of 6.79% in December 2022, as communicated to Unitholders on 10 January 2023, as well as a further sale of 4.78% (representing 13 347 068 linked units) on 24 February 2023 to various shareholders.
In aggregate, Grit has sold 13.9% shareholding in the Letlole La Rona between December 2022 and March 2023, resulting in current shareholding of 11.25% in the Company.
Letlole La Rona said in the statement that the exit process will take place in an orderly manner so as to maintain stability of the Company’s share price.
The statement explained that Grit’s sale of its entire shareholding in LLR is in line with its decision to exit investments where it does not have majority control, or where it has significant exposure to currencies other than US dollar, Euro or hard-currency-pegged revenue streams.
“Grit has announced similar decisions pertaining to certain of its hospitality assets in Mauritius recently. The Company would like to advise Unitholders that it remains focused on long-term value delivery to all stakeholders” LLR said
In July last year as part of their Go-to-Africa strategy Letlole La Rona acquired an initial 30% equity stake in Orbit Africa Logistics, with an option to increase this investment to 50%. OAL is a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Mauritius, owning an industrial asset in a prime industrial node in Nairobi, Kenya.
The co-investment was done alongside a wholly owned subsidiary of London listed Grit. The Orbit facility is situated on a prime industrial site on Mombasa Road, the principal route south of Nairobi center, serving the main industrial node, the port of Mombasa and the industrial town of Athi River and is strategically located 11 kilometers south of the international airport and 9.6 kilometers from the Inland Container Depot.
Grit shareholding in Letlole La Rona was seen as strategic for LLR, for the company to leverage on Grit’s already existing continental presence and expand its wings beyond Botswana borders as already delivered by Kenya transaction.
Media reports have however suggested that LLR and Grit have since late last year had fundamental disagreements on how to go about the Go-to-Africa strategy amongst other things, fuelled by alleged Botswana government interference on the affairs of LLR.
Government through LLR founding shareholder – Botswana Development Corporation has a controlling stake of around 40 percent in the company. Government is the sole shareholder of Botswana Development Corporation.
Letlole La Rona recently released their financial results for the six months ended December 2022, revenue increased by 4% to P50.2 million from P48.4 million in the prior comparative six months, whilst operating profit was up 8% to P36.5 million. Profit before tax of P49.7 million was reported, an increase of 8% on the prior comparative six months.
“We are encouraged by the strong results, notwithstanding a challenging economic environment. Our performance was mainly underpinned by annual lease escalations, our quality tenant base and below average market vacancy levels, especially in our warehouse portfolio,” Kamogelo Mowaneng, Letlole La Rona Chief Executive Officer commented.
LLR reported a weighted average lease expiry period of 3.3 years and escalation rates averaging 6.8% per annum for the period ended 31 December 2022.Its investment portfolio value increased by 14% year-on-year to close the period at P1.4 billion, mainly driven by the acquisition of a 30% stake in OAL in July 2022.
The Company also recorded a significant increase in other income, predominantly due to foreign exchange gains on the OAL shareholder loan. “We continue to explore pipeline opportunities locally, and regionally in line with our Go-to-Africa strategy and our interest remains on value-accretive investments,” Mowaneng said.
An interim distribution of 9.11 thebe per linked unit was declared on the 6th of February 2023 for the half-year period to 31 December 2022, comprising of a dividend of 0.05 thebe and debenture interest of 9.06 thebe per linked unit which will be paid to linked unit holders registered in the books of the Company at the close of business on 24 February 2023.
Business
Stargems Group establishes Training Center in BW
Internationally-acclaimed diamond manufacturing company StarGems Group has established the Stargems Diamond Training Center which will be providing specialized training in diamond manufacturing and evaluation.
The Stargems Diamond Training Institute is located at the Stargems Group Botswana Unit in Gaborone.
“In accordance with the National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS) which holds the principle that through education and skills development as well as the strategic alignment between national ambitions and individual capabilities, Botswana will become a prosperous, productive and innovative nation due to the quality and efficacy of its citizenry. The Training Centre will provide a range of modules in theory and in practice; from rough diamond evaluation to diamond grading and polishing for Batswana, at no cost for eight weeks. The internationally- recognized certificate offered in partnership with Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Training School presents invaluable opportunities for Batswana to access in the diamond industry locally and internationally. The initiative is an extension of our Corporate Social Investment to the community in which we operate,” said Vishal Shah, Stargems Group Managing Director, during the launch of the Stargems Diamond Training Center.
In order to participate in this rare opportunity, interested candidates are invited to submit a police clearance certificate and a BGCSE certificate only to the Stargems offices. Students who excel in these programs will have the chance to be onboarded by the Stargems Group. This serves as motivation for them to go through this training with a high level of seriousness.
“Community empowerment is one of our CSR principles. We believe that businesses can only thrive when their communities are well taken of. We are hoping that our presence will be impactful to various communities and economies. In the six countries that we are operating in, we have contributed through dedicating 10% of our revenues during COVID-19 to facilitate education, donating to hospitals and also to NGOs committed to supporting women and children living with HIV. One key issue that we are targeting in Botswana is the rate of unemployment amongst the youth. We are looking forward to working closely with the government and other relevant authorities to curb unemployment,” said Shah.
Currently, Stargems Group has employed 117 Batswana and they are looking forward to growing the numbers to 500 as the company grows. Majority of the employees will be graduates from the Stargems Diamond Training Center. This initiation has been received with open arms by the general public and stakeholders. During the launch, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Honorable Lefoko Moagi, stated that the ministry fully endorses Stargems Diamond Training and will work closely with the Group to support and grow the initiative.
“As a ministry, we see this as an game changer that is aligned with one of the United Nations’ Six Priority Sustainable Development Goals, which is to Advance Opportunity and Impact for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). What Stargems Group is launching today will have a huge impact on the creation of employment in Botswana. An economy’s productivity rises as the number of educated workers increases as its skilled workmanship increases. It is not a secret that low skills perpetuate poverty and widen the inequality gap, therefore the development of skills has the potential to contribute significantly to structural transformation and economic growth by enhancing employability and helping the country become more competitive. We are grateful to see the emergence of industry players such as Stargems Group who have strived to create such opportunities that mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on the economy,” said the Minister of Minerals and Energy.