Story highlights
NEW: The FBI is involved in the investigation into the cyberattack, a spokesman says
A massive cyberattack is creating ripple effects for Internet users around the globe
The prolonged denial-of-service assault is targeting Spamhaus, a European spam-fighting group
Security expert: "These things are essentially like nuclear bombs"
Internet users around the globe are facing slowed-down service, thanks to what’s being called the biggest cyberattack in history.
The prolonged denial-of-service assault is targeting The Spamhaus Project, a European spam-fighting group that has gone after CyberBunker, a data-storage company that offers to host any content “except child porn and anything related to terrorism.”
The organization has been in a long-running feud with CyberBunker and claims spammers use it as a host from which to spray junk mail across the Web.
Internet security firm CloudFlare said Spamhaus contacted it last week, saying it had been hit with an attack big enough to knock its site offline.
Security experts say the attack uses more sophisticated techniques than most DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks and targets the Web’s infrastructure, which has led to other sites performing slowly.