DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) assaults have recently been on the rise in the IT industry. Years ago, DDoS attacks were thought to be small annoyances done by inexperienced attackers for the sake of amusement, and they were very simple to mitigate. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. DDoS attacks have evolved into a sophisticated and, in many circumstances, lucrative enterprise.
Around 35% of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeted the United States in 2021. With slightly under 20% of attacks, the United Kingdom came in second, and China in third. The computer and internet industries are the most commonly targeted industries.
Hundreds of thousands of effective DDoS attacks go nameless and unreported every day. These attacks are, in fact, the most effective and costly. The rise in DDoS attacks is expected to continue, putting IT professionals with mitigation skills in high demand.
What is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a type of cyber attack that uses multiple computers to flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers. This will cause a denial of service for users of the targeted system.
Most DDoS attacks come from botnets or networks of computers that have been infected with malware and are controlled by hackers. The hacker then uses this network to send requests to a website, overwhelming its servers and causing them to crash and slow down.
It is difficult to shut down DDoS attacks that originate from multiple locations worldwide. The most common DDoS attack involves flooding a target’s server with so much traffic that it cannot handle legitimate requests. This can cause the site to crash or become unresponsive for extended periods.
How Does a DDoS Attack Work?
A DDoS attack seeks to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users. The intent may be to make a service unavailable, consume all the resources required by the targeted system, or even render the targeted system completely inoperable.
DDOS works by using many computers or devices to send fake requests to a specific website or server. This overloads the server, causing it to shut down or become slower than usual for legitimate users.
The number of devices used in an attack can range from hundreds to millions. Many computers are required because one computer alone can’t handle so many requests at once.
Types of DDoS Attacks
Here are some common types of DDoS attacks.
1. UDP Flood
The UDP flood is a very simple attack type that relies on the fact that UDP packets are stateless, meaning they do not require the client or server to acknowledge receipt of each packet. This allows an attacker to send thousands of UDP packets per second to a target without needing any more bandwidth than it takes to send one packet.
2. Ping of Death
An example of the ping of death is one of the simplest and most common attack methods. It involves sending a larger ping packet than the maximum size allowed. This causes the target host to crash as it tries to process an overly large packet.
3. NTP Amplification
NTP amplification attacks involve sending multiple NTP (Network Time Protocol) packets with spoofed source IP addresses to an NTP server which then responds to the spoofed address with a large response packet. The attacker can then send this large response to a chosen target IP address, causing it to crash or overload.
4. Slowloris
This type of attack works by exhausting available connections on the victim machine or server so that new clients cannot connect. The attacker sends multiple incomplete HTTP GET or POST requests, designed not to require any response from the server but instead to keep it occupied so that further client requests cannot be handled until existing connections are cleared by timing them out (hence the name Slowloris).
5. HTTP Floods
These attacks use a network of infected computers to send large amounts of data to a website or server. The goal is to overwhelm it so legitimate traffic cannot get through. HTTP Floods can be difficult for companies to defend against because they do not require any special hardware or software; instead, they use a network of computers that have been compromised by malicious software.
How to Prevent DDoS Attacks?
As the number of DDoS attacks increases, so does their sophistication. You must know how to prevent your business from becoming victims of these malicious cyberattacks.
Here are some steps you can take:
● Implement sound network monitoring practices
To minimize the effects of DDoS attacks, is to implement sound network monitoring practices. This means identifying potential threats before they become a problem so that you can respond accordingly.
● Implement server-level DDoS protection
If you have servers under attack, they must have the proper protections to mitigate the effects of DDoS attacks. This includes SYN flood protection and rate-limiting features that can help prevent legitimate connections from being dropped due to overwhelming traffic volume from malicious users.
● Have a backup plan
Ensure that you have an alternative site that can be used in an emergency. You can always switch to another site should your main domain become unavailable due to a DDOS attack.
● Ensure sufficient server capacity
Before launching a new website or application, make sure that your hosting provider has enough resources available for the new project so as not to cause any problems later on when the application starts getting traffic. Additionally, you might consider upgrading your plan if needed once your application becomes popular and starts getting more traffic than expected.
● Set up basic traffic thresholds
It’s important to set up basic traffic thresholds for your site and services. This will help you identify when your system is under attack so you can take action to protect yourself and your users. You can also use these thresholds as a trigger for when you need to call in experts.
● Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN is a network of servers that store copies of your website’s content and serve them when someone visits your site. A CDN will help mitigate some of the impacts of an attack on your servers by sending requests to other servers (closer to the user) before they get redirected back to yours. This helps spread out the load on your server, but it doesn’t solve everything because it still requires you to have enough capacity so that every request gets answered quickly enough not to slow down users’ experience.
● Switch to a hybrid or cloud-based solution
It would be best if you also considered switching over to a hybrid or cloud-based solution that helps you scale quickly and easily. This will allow you to handle large volumes of traffic without worrying about outages or latency issues caused by using older hardware or software-based solutions that don’t have the same capabilities as modern systems do today.
● Bullet-proof your network hardware configurations
Make sure you have properly configured firewalls and routers so they only allow legitimate traffic into your network and block all illegitimate traffic. Also, make sure that all devices in your network use strong passwords and are not accessible via default passwords.
PAST EXAMPLES OF DDOS
DDOS attacks are becoming more common. We have seen countless examples of DDOS attacks on major websites in the past few years.
1. Occupy Central: June 2014
On June 11th, 2014, a group of people calling themselves the “Occupy Central” movement began occupation in Hong Kong. The movement was led by several Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and university professors. The occupation was aimed at pressing the government to allow universal suffrage in 2017 when they planned to hold Hong Kong Chief Executive elections.
The movement called on citizens to come out onto the streets and occupy major intersections in Hong Kong. They also urged others to join them using social media.
The protests were peaceful initially but soon turned violent after police responded with tear gas and pepper spray when protesters attempted to storm the Legislative Council building on July 1st, 2014. Some protesters threw bricks or umbrellas at police officers who wore riot gear and helmets to protect themselves from any further assaults from protesters.
2. Amazon Web Services (AWS): February 2020
In February 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) suffered a DDOS attack. The attack was launched on AWS using a botnet of compromised internet-connected devices and lasted several hours. This attack affected many websites worldwide, including Netflix, Reddit, Twitter, and Spotify.
The DDOS attack was carried out by hackers who used a botnet of IoT devices such as security cameras, routers, and printers which they had infected with malware.
The hackers then used these IoT devices to send queries to a cloud service run by Amazon Web Services (AWS). The volume of these queries overwhelmed the network causing it to crash and become unavailable.
Final Words
The DDoS attack is not just an interruption of service but can also cause serious hits to a company’s reputation and bottom line. What’s key is that companies take steps to further secure their networks from these attacks and prevent them in the future. While a DDOS attack may be simple to execute, dozens of detailed processes have to occur before the process is even launched – protecting a network isn’t as easy as it appears at first glance.