DDoS Attack
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to make an online service unavailable to users by disrupting the normal traffic of a targeted server/website, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attacks can also be used as a form of extortion as in some cases; the targeted victims are threatened with a DDoS attack or attacked at a low level followed by a threat of a higher level DDoS attack unless the company pays a crypto currency ransom.
How DDoS attacks are identified?
DDoS attacks do not come with a warning and hence are very difficult to identify. But there are clues that indicate that a DDoS attack is happening.
Some clues related to DDoS attacks:
- If a suspicious amount of traffic is generated from a single IP address or IP range.
- Slow access to a file either locally or remotely.
- Frequent Server Crashes along with a 503 services unavailable error.
- Problems in accessing websites
Types of DDoS attacks:
- Volume Based Attacks: These attacks send massive amounts of traffic to overwhelm a network’s bandwidth.
- Protocol Attacks: They are more focused and exploit vulnerabilities present in the server.
- Application Attacks: Most sophisticated form of DDoS attacks and they generally focus on a particular web application.
Recent Example of DDoS Attacks:
On Tuesday, 4th May, 2021 Belnet the internet service provider for Belgium’s public sector came under a DDoS Attack, disrupting government websites and services.
