DDoS Attack: Everything To Know in 4 Points

Introduction

The internet can be a blessing, as well as a disaster for multiple reasons. There are hundreds of cyber-crimes that are being attempted each day, and as the internet and its uses have evolved, it has become imperative for us to soon come up with solutions that can help us deal with such internet hazards. DDoS is one of those powerful weapons that seem to have been very rampant in the internet world, and it is high time we realize what it does, who makes use of them, and how a DDoS attack can cause a lot of problems for websites and normal services.

1. What is DDoS? What does DDoS stand for?
2. Types of DDOS Attacks – How DDoS attack works?
3. DDoS attack Example
4. How to stop DDoS attacks

1. What is DDoS? What does DDoS stand for?

The DDoS full form or to be precise, DDoS stands for – distributed denial of service. Now let us dive deeper to understand what is DDoS attack exactly – it is one of the most well-known most-used malicious forms of attacks that are targeted against online services as well as websites by hackers. The goals behind doing this are many –but the ones that completely explains

DDoS attack meaning is – that it is used to wreak havoc and create a disturbance in the normal traffic that a website usually has. An online DDoS attack can release a flood of unwanted and unexpected traffic to the targeted sites. This kind of unwanted flood of traffic from the internet will overwhelm the targeted services or networks, which is the main goal here.

The attack to what is DDoS has many answers to it, and the problems it causes are equally dangerous. Hackers have their aims very clear in their minds where they want to make sure that the targeted website or a computer’s infrastructure is unavailable. DDoS ­attack meaning stands for how these hackers do this by making a particular website crash with unwanted traffic to their sites. They make sure that the flooding is more than what the website can accommodate, which brings about its unavailability.

Now the traffic that gets generated for this distributed denial of service attack can be in various forms. It can either be in the form of fake packets, incoming messages that you accidentally click open, or requests for certain connections. DDoS meaning can be unraveled once you are targeted in any of these ways, and then you get to learn the real reason behind such attempts done by the hackers.

2. Types of DDOS Attacks – How DDoS attack works?

DDoS attacks today are advances enough to have different types of occurrence. Hackers have found innovative ways of hacking into these online services and computer infrastructures that we are talking about to tamper with the traffic and bring down the entire website.

There are a few particular layers on which this DDoS attack map treads on – they are –

1. Layer 3: The network layer – terms like ICMP Floods, smurf attacks, and IP/ICMP Fragmentation can be witnessed in this layer.
2. Layer 7: is the application layer. All the potential HTTP – encrypted attacks find a place in this layer.
3. Layer 4: The transport layer – where attacks like UDP floods, SYN floods can be seen unfolding and bringing in traffic.                    

These were just the trajectory that shows the various layers in which you can see ddosing being done and how any of these layers slowly starts showing the symptoms of this practice, which would include – a disconnection of the internet service, severe issues in connecting to the internet service provider, unnecessary spam mails and message requests, slowly unable to access all other websites – can be a particular website as well, slow access to important files – all these are clear signs of a DDoS definition.

Now coming to the most important types of this attack:

1.Application Attacks: This kind of attack takes place in the above mentioned 7^th layer. A slow form of attack is being seen taking place in the applications used by the victim. At first, the victim might not even realize as these application requests look legitimate, but then slowly, it starts the hacking process, and the victim is left helpless. Layer 7 is where all the web pages get generated, and responses to HTTP requests are also recorded. Sometimes this application attack is combined with other DDoS attacks where even the bandwidth and network get affected.

2. TCP Connection Attacks: The TCP connection sequence seriously tampers within this kind of an attack. This form of attack or SYN Floods, which come under this, releases a kind of unseen vulnerability. It is described to be a three-way handshake connection that takes place between the host and the server. The targeted network gets a request for a handshake; however, in this kind of an attack, that handshake never gets completed, leaving the door open for the server not to accept other requests. However, the hackers do not stop here as more requests are continuously sent to overwhelm the target.

3. Volumetric Attacks: This most common type makes use of something called the botnets that easily flood the website with unwanted traffic, but it destabilizes the capabilities of the servers of processing the traffic

4. Fragmentation Attacks: The datagram fragmentation process severely tampers within this type in which the hacker attacks the IP datagrams and then further divides them into smaller fake packets. These get transferred across the targeted network. The incapability of putting these fake data packets back in order is what overwhelms the server.

The DDoS attack map can track all the various types and their frequency of taking place. It uses the data to show the attacks that are taking place, and it is constantly updated.

3. DDoS attack Example

Some of the most notable types of DDoS attack would include:

1. Target organization’s attention needs to be diverted at any cost. As the targeted website gets busy on figuring out the attack and why this took place, the hacker gets to do the job of installing malicious kinds of software to steal all data
2. There have been times when some computer whizzes have sorted to this horrendous hacking practice to make a grand gesture.
3. From software to media companies, even the gaming industry has fallen prey to this kind of attack.

4. How to stop DDoS attacks

You should always be ready to answer a question such as what is DDoS protection and how to stop it. There should be proper solutions in hand.

1. Firewall & Router recognition

Always make sure that your firewall and routers have the latest updates for recognition. Also, this should be done routinely to be able to avoid unnecessary traffic.

    2. Be quick

Do not waste time once you have been made aware of the DDoS attack. Have some anti-DDoS services that help you to solve the issue at the earliest. Always have a backup ISP.

3. Have trusted security software

This is one of the basic solutions – always make sure to secure any device connected to your internet. Keep it updated with the latest security types, as it is the only way to stay away from the botnets.

4. Artificial Intelligence in Trending

AI is one of the most developed methods right now that detects the attack and helps block such malicious activities as well before it reaches your systems. More and more developed new systems are using this method for protection.

Thus ddosing can be very harmful to your systems and websites; you must know what it means and how you can curb it.

Also Read

• 8 Best DDoS Attack Tools (Free DDoS Tool Of The Year 2020)