how the SellerFox external analytics service repelled a DDoS attack

While the whole country was getting ready for the Defender of the Fatherland Day, the SellerFox external marketplace analytics service team was defending itself from nosy people who like easy money. For the first time in two years, the service almost became a victim of “scammers”.

Coincidence or not, but this happened a few days after SellerFox became an authorized Wildberries service. In February of this year, SellerFox was authorized by Wildberries and is now one of the few analytics services that meets the information security requirements of Wildberries and is recommended by the platform on the pages of the WB Seller’s personal account.

On February 18, 2023, we are happy to publish this news on our social networks. February 22 to SellerFox technical support arrives like snow on the head, the message: “ordered a DDoS attack, ready to give out customer data with reference to the service.” And then, like in a James Bond movie. We’re taking our time to find out the details. The “hacker” is asking us for $850 to cancel the attack and “leak” the customer’s data. Later, the amount of the ransom will change, like the “wind in May”. Anonymous admits that he was paid $450 for a DDoS attack, and allegedly he will kindly cancel it, and also extradite the customer if we pay him at least $700-750. At first, the impatient “hacker” gave us an hour for everything, then he agreed to wait.

Correspondence with an obviously not very experienced “blackmailer” was more like a communication between a schoolboy and a salesman in a store. It seems like a “comrade” wants to bargain, but does not know how. And everything would be fine if the website of the SellerFox marketplace analytics service really didn’t go down. For a total of 40 minutes on February 22, 2023, the SellerFox marketplace analytics service was unavailable to our users. On the same day, the DDoS attack was successfully repelled by the SellerFox team. And the person who ruined our holiday weekend, three days later, suddenly wrote: “I don’t need the money, I refused the order.”

A DDoS attack is a way to block the operation of a site by submitting a large number of requests that exceed the network bandwidth. In other words, attackers artificially create an avalanche-like increase in requests to an online resource in order to increase the load on it and disable it.

According to StormWall (a company that specializes in protecting business from cyber attacks), the largest number of DDoS attacks in the 3rd quarter of 2022 worldwide was in the telecommunications sector (43.2%). In Russia, there is also a difficult situation associated with DDoS attacks. The number of DDoS attacks in Russia in Q3 2022 increased by 180% compared to the same period in 2021. The leader in the number of attacks was the financial sector – 45% of the total number of attacks. In second place is online retail – 21% of the total number of attacks, in third place is the telecom sector – 18%.

According to RBC, in Russia the number of initiated criminal cases on the facts of DDoS attacks is very low. It is difficult to identify and solve such crimes, but it is possible. Actions for DDoS attacks are Article 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Illegal access to computer information) and Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs). The maximum punishment for committing such crimes is up to seven years of real imprisonment. In most cases, the court imposes a suspended sentence or a fine. The fine can reach up to 500 thousand rubles, and the hacker is also obliged to compensate for the damage caused.

By the way, the person who was instructed to carry out a DDoS attack on the SellerFox marketplace analytics service still writes that he is ready to hand over the customer’s contacts. Now it is important for us that SellerFox users were not affected, since the DDoS attack was quickly repelled. In addition, we are always ready to compensate for the “simple” service to our users. It is much cheaper than paying money to “blackmailers”. Whoever is behind this, I would like to believe that our competitors are not capable of playing such a “dirty game”. We do not want the same for other marketplace analytics services. SellerFox – for fair competition.