A Microsoft article recalls the story of a 15-year-old hacker going by the name “Mafiaboy” who orchestrated multiple attacks that took down the websites of companies like Dell, E-Trade, eBay, and Yahoo.
That’s a major inconvenience and disruption to the businesses involved and their customers, and it can place companies in peril. And it’s far from an isolated incident, unfortunately. Cybernews reported more than 10,000 DDoS attacks in the year 2020, and the number has continued to increase in the following years.
What a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack is
What the Microsoft article described is known as a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. A DDoS is a cybercrime where the attacker floods a service with Internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites.
The attack may include a series of “bots” that storm a computer or computers, pushing away legitimate users and disrupting service.
In disrupting service, the DDoS attack can overpower the application’s resources. Think of a website having so much incoming traffic at the same time that it can’t function efficiently, and it either crashes or runs so poorly that the criminals prevent legitimate users from being able to access the site.
There are many cases where DDoS attacks have been carried out successfully (from the criminal’s point of view). One such attack disrupted major sites, including Airbnb, Netflix, PayPal, Visa, Amazon, The New York Times, Reddit, and GitHub.
Why do hackers launch DDoS attacks?
Cyber criminals may have multiple reasons for launching DDoS attacks. Sometimes it is for financial gain. But it could be someone who wants to carry out revenge against a particular company or website. And sometimes there are political reasons behind attacks – if there is a cyber terrorist group looking to take down a website advocating a certain political or environmental position. A disgruntled former employee could wreak havoc on a company’s website with a DDoS attack. There are many reasons why criminals may initiate such an attack, and none of them good.
Another danger of a DDoS attack is that the criminals can access a company’s database and have access to a company’s sensitive information, causing disruption to the business, expose customer’s sensitive data, and cause the company compliance headaches. DDoS attacks can last anywhere from several hours to several days.
How do cyber criminals perpetrate these attacks?
Microsoft identifies different types of DDoS attacks. Some overwhelm the network layer with what looks like legitimate traffic, where attackers use the DNS (Domain Name Server) application. Another is the protocol attack, which exploits a weakness in what is called the “protocol stack.” Another is a resource or application layer attack, which targets web application packets and disrupts the transmission of data between hosts.
Gaming, ecommerce and telecommunications companies are among the targeted industries, but as we have all come to know is that cyber criminals are “equal opportunity disrupters” and may go after any industry, anyone, anywhere.
How to tell if you may be under a DDoS attack
There are a few signs that you may be under a DDoS attack. If there is an unexplainable spike or increase in web traffic, slow loading times for a website, timeouts or unexplained errors, a decreasing level of performance for other services on the same network, or increase memory usage on the server.,
There may be instances when a company website is deluged with legitimate surges of traffic – such as an ecommerce site on Black Friday. And years ago when the Affordable Care Act became law, the federal websites got overloaded with correspondence from citizens looking to apply. There are instances when increased traffic can be legitimate.
But for those who fear that they are victims to a criminal DDoS attack, there are some strategies that you can follow. And timing is of the essence.
What you can do to lessen the chances of a DDoS attack
Here are a few thoughts on how to lessen the chance of a DDoS attack.
- Software solutions can help determine potential threats.
- Use a strong network securing and monitoring service to watch for changes in the operation of your system
- Familiarize yourself with the different types of DDoS attacks, because they are not all the same and there are different approaches depending on the type of attack
- Develop a DDoS attack plan, with defined responsibilities for team members
- Conduct practice drills to prepare for an actual attack.
- Identify any potential gaps in software or security.
How to prevent DDoS attacks
Security provider Norton offers some additional recommendations in terms of preventing possible DDoS attacks:
- Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for online privacy.
- Update apps and security systems, including patches
- Be aware of phishing attempts – which can often be a symptom of DDoS attacks
- Protect your IP address
- Install and /or update antivirus software
Don’t take chances on your network’s security and safety!
Your network is too important to the operation of your business to leave anything to chance. DDoS is only one of many cyber threats out there. If you have questions about what’s involved in getting and keeping a network secure, please contact us. Let us help you find the best defenses against cyberattacks. Learn more about how we can help by visiting https://pulsetechnology.com or giving us a call at 888-357-4277.
