DDoS attacks can result in serious financial losses for a company. What is a DDoS attack on a website? In this article, we looked at what DDoS technically is, how to overcome it, and what this abbreviation stands for.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is a cyber attack that is aimed at overloading servers. Its goal is to make a resource that has a limit on the number of simultaneous requests unavailable to regular users. DDoS is, in simple terms, a barrage of requests coming from hundreds, and sometimes thousands of devices connected to the network.
What does the attackers’ toolkit consist of:
- Bots: The attacker creates an entire army of bots – computers on which malicious software is installed that controls their actions.
- Attack: Bots send requests to the server, simulating normal traffic, but on a huge scale.
- Overload: what is DDoS – it means that the server device cannot cope with such a flow of requests and as a result becomes unavailable to users.
What does a DDoS attack mean for business:
- termination of stable operation of a corporate web resource;
- financial losses;
- damage to reputation;
- threat to the security of confidential information.
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Cyberattack targets
A DDoS attack by malicious users on a website can be a tool for achieving various goals:
- blackmail;
- competition or revenge;
- cyber war;
- honing hacking skills;
- entertainment.
Types of DDoS attacks
Let’s list several different types of attacks.
DDoS attack by channel overflow (flood): what is it in simple words
What does a flood DDoS attack do? Its essence is to overload the communication channel between the server device and users using bots. Here are the main subtypes of “Channel Overflow”:
- HTTP flood and ping flood: in the first case, bots send the server device the maximum possible number of HTTP requests (requests to display web pages), in the second case – ICMP requests (ping requests), which are used to check the availability of the device. In this case, the attacker replaces his IP address so as not to become a victim himself.
- A Smurf attack is a more sophisticated form of Channel Flooding. The attacker sends ICMP requests to computers on the network, specifying the victim’s IP address as the source. These computers respond to the victim’s requests, which then overloads the victim’s network.
Yo-Yo DDoS Attack: What is it?
A yo-yo attack means that an attacker sends a stream of requests to a server device, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing their intensity. A server device that is subject to a yo-yo attack cannot find a stable state and constantly switches between scaling towards overload and being idle.
DDoS attack through exploitation of programming errors: what is it
What does exploitation of programming errors mean as a type of DDoS? Attackers exploit flaws in the architecture of the victim’s system to cause damage. Here are some types of such attacks:
- Exception handling: Some programs do not handle errors (exceptions) correctly, which can cause the server to crash and become unavailable. Attackers can send special requests to the server device that cause exceptions, overloading the error handling system and making the server device unavailable.
- Buffer overflow: Some software does not process input data correctly, which results in a buffer overflow (an area of memory allocated for storing data). Attackers can send special data to the server device that overflows the buffer, causing a crash or even launching malicious code.
DDoS attack via Mirai botnet: what is it
Mirai attacks use the Internet of Things – CCTV cameras, washing machines, Wi-Fi-enabled watches, etc.
Here’s how the scheme works:
- Mirai scans the internet for devices with weak passwords.
- Devices are infected with Mirai malware.
- The attacker uses infected devices to attack a target server device on a DDoS scale.
Routing and DNS attacks
There are two types of this type of cyber attack:
- DoS attack on DNS server vulnerabilities: An attacker can exploit vulnerabilities in DNS to overload it or change information about IP addresses of sites.
- DDoS attack on a DNS server: in this case, the attacker sends a huge number of requests to the DNS, overloading it and making it unavailable.
Attacks can also be classified by the OSI layer they target:
- Application layer attack (Layer 7): simulates user actions by sending a huge number of requests to the server device, such as requests to display a web page.
- Transport layer attack (Layer 4): Overloads the server device with synchronous connections, such as TCP connections.
- Network layer (Layer 3) attack: Uses spoofed IP addresses to overload routers and disrupt network operations.
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DDoS Protection: When It’s Possible and What It Means
If a DDoS attack on your site is already underway and you do not have the necessary protection against cyber attacks, then it is unlikely that you will be able to take action quickly. Here you need to have a backup server, the ability to reconfigure DNS, limit the speed, or be able to detect suspicious traffic. Criminals also often test the degree of protection of the future victim with short attacks before the main hacker “attack”. If you record such unwanted penetrations, you can have time to take action.
Methods for comprehensive protection against cyberattacks and threat management are usually proactive in nature:
- Write down a cyber attack protection plan in case your site is DDoS’d. One measure could be, for example, equipping backup servers.
- Find your vulnerabilities before hackers find them. There are tools that can simulate an attack – among them LOIC, HULK, DDOSIM Layer 7.
- Follow internet safety rules and keep your software up to date.
- Use the necessary resources to protect against cyber attacks, and these tools should not be disabled. Mainly, we are talking about SSL (Secure Socket Layer). For enhanced protection against cyber attacks, you can also use a web application firewall and other features.
- For security purposes, do not store your real IP addresses publicly and change them from time to time.
- Check out cloud tools. Their providers have more power and tend to take care of their customers’ security themselves.
It is important to remember that DDoS can be sudden and dangerous for a website
What is a DDoS attack on a commercial website: main thoughts
DDoS attack – what is it in simple words? DDoS is (decoding: Distributed Denial of Service – distributed attack type “denial of service”) a cyber attack that makes a web resource unavailable.
A cyber attack can result in financial losses, reputational damage and customer loss.
You can protect yourself from a DDoS attack if you understand that it requires taking measures in advance.