Cyberattacks directed at the Internet domain name management company Dyn affected several major East Coast websites on Friday, causing slowdowns.
“We still don’t know who is responsible,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “Figuring out the why is also of vital importance.”
Dyn started monitoring and mitigating a Denial-of-Service (DDOS) at 7:10 a.m. on its Internet infrastructure. The initial problems were resolved around 9:20 a.m. However, around midday Friday, Dyn began monitoring a new attack. Some customers experienced latency because of the attacks, according to Dyn’s website.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) also reported experiencing outages Friday morning but wasn’t sure of the causes.
Dyn provides service to AWS but because of the vastness of AWS’s network, Dyn isn’t sure that the cyberattack is correlated.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the cyberattack “malicious activity,” which Schiff said sounded like a hack by bad actors such as the recent hacking of Democratic National Committee emails by the Russians.
“We’re aware and are investigating all potential causes,” said Gillian M. Christensen, deputy press secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Dyn provides services to Pfizer, Visa, Netflix, Twitter, SoundCloud, and BT, which all could have experienced slow speeds because of the attack.
