British ISPs ‘Voip Unlimited’ and ‘Voipfone’ Still Struggling With DDoS Disruption

• Internet and telephony service providers in the UK are dealing with a wave of DDoS attacks.
• Already, two have suffered noticeable service interruptions that are persisting for the fourth day.
• There’s also a case of a ransomware attack targeting another British ISP at the same time.

The British internet and telephony service provider ‘Voip Unlimited’ is going for a turbulent weekend, as the DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that have been plaguing it since Wednesday are still ongoing, and the company is in the process of finding a way to get back to normal operational status. Similarly, Voipfone has announced a DDoS-induced disruption that started on August 31 and which has been partially contained now. The two ISPs appear to have found themselves in the crosshair of the REvil gang, as a report on the Register suggests.

The ransomware actors have launched DDoS attacks instead of encrypting system files as they probably thought this would cause more trouble to that particular type of company. Indeed, DDoS attacks against an ISP aren’t something that can be ignored or played down, obviously, and they create the grounds for an imminent response. In this case, it’s paying a ransom to the actors, and the amount has been characterized as “colossal.”

However, not all ISPs in the UK deal with the same type of cyberattack at the moment. BlackMatter has also posted stolen files that allegedly belong to Enreach, including financial documents, customer data, contracts, and various samples of internal documentation. Enreach hasn’t announced any cybersecurity incidents, nor have they suffered a downtime, so the incident hasn’t been confirmed.

Back in June 2021, another British ISP, ‘Zzoom,’ was targeted by DDoS actors who managed to overcome the firm’s existing DDoS-filtering systems and cause service downtimes. That was an early example of where things were going in the field, as ransomware actors explored ways to raise the heat for their victims.

The UK Comms Council has already published an urgent notice towards all ISPs in the country informing them how to protect against DDoS attacks and contain one in the case they are targeted. In a statement shared with the Register, the chairman of the organization, Eli Katz, said:

Comms Council UK is aware of the Denial of Service attacks currently targeting IP-based communications service providers in the UK and that a small number of our members have been impacted. We have communicated the issue to our membership and are continuing to liaise closely with them to share further information and support as the situation develops.