More and more data is flowing across the internet, and as its volume grows exponentially, we become more exposed to DDoS attacks, which can take many different forms — and cause many different kinds of damage. Can you protect yourself against this threat, and how do you do it effectively?
DDoS attacks – what are they?
DDoS stands for distributed denial of service. Attacks of this type are among the most common cyberattacks, targeting computer systems and network services. Their biggest danger lies in consuming all available, free resources, which results in network services no longer functioning. The attack comes from one account or several computers at the same time, aiming to block access to internet connections and services.
DDoS attacks in practice
In practice, a DDoS attack involves launching an attack from many locations at once, usually using specialized software. This means that on a given signal, the victim’s system is attacked by many computers simultaneously, and the whole thing can look like a surge in visits to the site. The consequence is that the service stops functioning, since all available resources are consumed by the attacking computers. We’re dealing with a DDoS attack when all the hijacked computers attack a website or system together, generating fake attempts to use its services. As the site tries to respond to the requests, its resources — such as memory, processor time, and network bandwidth — become exhausted. Under such heavy load, resources are depleted quickly, and the entire system consequently grinds to a halt.
What can be a target of DDoS attacks?
There are a few spots in computer networks that are most commonly targeted by DDoS attacks. The most common include:
- internet connections
- firewalls
- IPS/IDS
- servers
When attacking internet connections, attackers use many kinds of DDoS attacks, and the most effective is sending a volume of data the targeted connection can’t handle. In Poland, connection bandwidth is estimated at 50-100 MB/s, while attacks are estimated to range from 6-10 MB/s (the smallest) up to 200-500 MB/s.
Firewalls are increasingly becoming a target of these attacks. A firewall is responsible for blocking unusual attempts to establish sessions and other behavior that may indicate a breach of protected resources. DDoS attacks most often target the port used for browsing websites — the open port used for internet communication. This results in a large number of sessions being opened, which overflows the log.
IPS/IDS are intrusion detection systems that rely on specialized algorithms. Because DDoS attacks increase the number of internet sessions, some IPS/IDS systems may stop working correctly.
Servers are a primary target of hacking attacks, including DDoS attacks. They mainly cause the exhaustion of the IT resources needed to run a website or application’s functions.
DDoS – how do you prevent it?
As already mentioned, DDoS attacks are among the most common attacks carried out today, and their consequences reach well beyond the IT department. They can create risks that lead to a loss of a company’s online reputation, as well as financial losses. Protecting against DDoS attacks is not easy, since they aren’t uniform — quite the opposite, they keep evolving. Cybercriminals are refining their attacks to greater and greater precision, which makes fighting them even harder. The best approach is to activate protection specifically against these kinds of threats. Remote Admin offers top-quality DDoS attack protection services. In practice, our solution monitors and filters HTTP/HTTPS traffic, inspecting every request. This means that only clean traffic reaches your company’s server, while malformed packets and attack attempts get blocked.
DDoS attacks often end in attempts at extortion against the targeted company. Downtime in your system can cost you significant financial losses, which is why the best solution is to put the right protection in place. DDoS attacks keep evolving and broadening their scope, which is why it’s worth relying on IT security specialists in this case.