TLDR:
- Internet intelligence firm GreyNoise has been tracking large waves of “Noise Storms” containing spoofed internet traffic since January 2020
- The purpose and origin of these noise storms, suspected to be covert communications or DDoS attacks, remain unknown
Unexplained ‘Noise Storms’ flood the Internet, puzzle experts
Internet intelligence firm GreyNoise has been monitoring large waves of mysterious “Noise Storms” since January 2020. These storms consist of spoofed internet traffic from millions of IP addresses, potentially serving as covert communications, DDoS attack coordination signals, or malware C2 channels. The presence of an ASCII string “LOVE” in the ICMP packets adds to the intrigue.
The noise storms target specific internet service providers, avoiding some major players like AWS, and focus on TCP connections, especially to port 443. They also manipulate parameters to mimic different operating systems and adjust TTL values to appear realistic. GreyNoise has reached out to the cybersecurity community for help in solving this mystery, emphasizing the need for adaptive security measures beyond traditional approaches.