What is Distributed Denial of Service attack?
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks refers to distributed denial of service attack. The success of this type of attack is based on bandwidth limitation, which is one of the characteristics of any network resource, for example, such as the infrastructure supporting the company’s website. During a DDoS attack, a large number of requests are sent to a web resource to exhaust its data processing capabilities and disrupt its normal functioning.
The principle of DDOS attacks
Network resources (for example, web servers) always have limitations on the number of simultaneously processed requests. In addition to limiting the power of the server, the channel through which the server communicates with the Internet also has finite bandwidth. If the applications exceed the limit capabilities of any infrastructure component, the following service level problems may occur:
- Response to requests is much slower than usual,
- Some or even all user requests may be left unanswered.
The ultimate goal of an attacker is a complete cessation of the regular operation of a web resource, a complete “denial of service.” An attacker may also demand money to stop the attack. In some cases, a DDoS attack can be used to discredit or damage a business competitor, when this is the case you can consult IT Solutions Company in Dubai.
Common Type of DDOS Attack
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Conducting a DDoS attack using a botnet
To send a huge number of requests to a resource, cybercriminals often create a zombie network from infected computers. Since criminals can fully control the actions of each infected zombie network computer, the aggregate scale of such an attack may be excessive for the attacked web resources.
The nature of modern DDoS threats
From the beginning to the mid-2000s, this type of criminal activity was quite common. However, the number of successful DDoS attacks has decreased, probably due to the following reasons: Successful technical countermeasures against DDoS attacks.
Targeted attacks
Unlike mass attacks of computer viruses (the goal of which is to infect the maximum number of computers), targeted attacks use a completely different approach. Target attacks aim at affecting the network of a specific company or organization, or even one server in the organization’s network infrastructure.
Which Industries Are The Biggest Security Targets?
Cybercriminals often carry out targeted attacks on enterprises that process or store information that can be used by criminals for profit. The most commonly targeted attacks are:
Banks. Criminals attack servers or the banking network to gain access to data and carry out illegal transfers of funds from users’ bank accounts.
Billing companies. After selecting a billing company for an attack, criminals try to gain access to user accounts or steal valuable information, such as customer databases, financial information, or technical data.
Enterprise Security Bypass. Since large companies (which are usually targeted by malware) often have a high level of IT security, cybercriminals may need some very tricky methods. Since most organizations use firewalls and other means of protection against external attacks, the criminal may try to find moves within the organization.
Phishing. Employees can unwittingly help a criminal by replying to a phishing email. It may look like a message from the IT department of the company; they offer the employee to enter their password for access to the corporate system for testing purposes.
Use of false personal data. In some cases, criminals may use personal information collected on social networking websites to impersonate one of the employee’s colleagues. In this case, the phishing request for the username and password looks as if a colleague sends it. It helps to ask employees for their passwords without causing suspicion.
Every year the number of cyberattack is growing. An additional growth factor was the discovery of several dangerous Java platform vulnerabilities that were used by cybercriminals in cyber-attack. The popularity of banking Trojans and other programs for obtaining financial information is because, with their help, cybercriminals can quickly secure illegal income. Moreover, the set of tricks used by attackers replenish almost every month, and there is no longer any certainty that you can protect yourself from them only by vigilance.
