Denial of Service Attacks

Denial of Service Attacks are a type of attacks coming from the Internet, aiming at attacking remote computers or servers in such fashion that the remote computer cease to function or is severely affected up to the point where it can no longer function normally. Basically, any computer or server connected to the Internet can be affected by denial of service attacks.

More recently, denial of service attacks, also known as DoS attacks, have evolved into a new and more dangerous type of attack known as Distributed Denial of Service attack, or DDoS. In a classic denial of service attack, the attacker will attempt to render a remote computer not functional, in most cases through sending various types of network packets in large quantities, which is a technique also known as 'flooding'. This will usually be performed from a computer or small number of computers that the attacker has under control. On the contrary, in a Distributed Denial Of Service attack, the attacker will first attempt to compromise a large number of computers connected to the Internet. On each of these computers, a special backdoor tool with remote control capabilities will be installed, that can be activated at any time by the attacker. Then, when the distributed denial of service attack is launched, the attacker commands all the computers he/she controls, to simultaneously attack a given target remote computer or network. It is clear that Distributed Denial of Service attacks are very dangerous and that they can break down even large, performant corporate systems unless special, efficient protection measures are used.

Please note that even if you are a regular home computer user, completely unaware of these problems, you can be a part of a DDoS attack if your computer has been compromised - it can be used as an intermediary stage for launching attacks towards other computers on the Internet. It is therefore important to act responsively and protect yourself against security risks, and in this fashion protect other users of the Internet community from distributed denial of service attacks.

Please also note that the common way to generate denial-of-service attacks is to compromise computers through known, unpatched vulnerabilities - this makes clear for anyone, the importance of having your computer's operating system and applications kept up to date with the latest security patches and upgrades. Windows Update is a very important tool, a must for any Windows user, to keep computer updated and stay away from such risks.

To prevent denial of service attacks from damaging your business critical operations and blocking your online presence, you need to study and to implement proper security measures at your location and you will probably need to cooperate with other parties as well. Make sure your servers are configured in such manner that they can support a much higher load than normal, and use redundancy wherever possible. Make sure you have plenty of network bandwith available, or secondary network channels and IP ranges that can be used as an alternate should your primary connection get overloaded. Make sure you use equipment and software that is properly updated with the latest firmware and software upgrades, and use stress tools and security tests to ensure they are reliable and that they can survive a denial of service attack. Finally, use specialized intrusion detection systems and early warning systems to ensure that you will be warned when such an attack occurs on your network and that you can take immediate, proactive measures to protect yourself from these attacks.