Since the pandemic (2019), the threat of cyberattacks has become larger than ever. Why it happened? The reason is, that every normal person and business has to go for an online way.
There are multiple cyber attacks in the markets, but DDoS or Distribute Denial of Service is one of the biggest. It is capable of causing significant disruption to online services, businesses, and even governments.
That’s why, understanding what DDoS is, how it works, and the motivations behind such attacks is crucial for individuals and businesses. Particularly those who aim to boost their digital defences.
What is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)?
Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) is a type of assault that is unique in that they are not centralized. Rather than attempting to breach security perimeters, DDoS attacks involve producing a multitude of connected devices, which form a botnet. This army of compromised devices attacks a target website with fictional traffic. This renders it unavailable to legitimate users.
Unlike other cyber threats, DDoS attacks don’t aim to steal data or infiltrate systems. Instead, their goal is to disrupt services and create chaos. This disruptive potential makes DDoS attacks an attractive choice for various actors, including hacktivists, cyber vandals, and extortionists.
Different Types of DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks come in various forms, each targeting different components of a network based on the layers defined by the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Three primary categories include:
1. Volume-Based or Volumetric Attacks:
These attacks aim to control the available bandwidth between the victim and the larger internet. DNS amplification, an example of a volume-based attack, involves spoofing the target’s address and sending a DNS lookup request to an open DNS server, resulting in an amplification of the attacker’s query.
2. Protocol Attacks:
Protocol attacks consume the capacity of web servers or other resources by exploiting weaknesses in Layers 3 and 4 of the OSI protocol stack. An example is a SYN flood, where the attacker floods the target with an excessive number of TCP handshake requests. This overcomes the target in the process.
3. Application-Layer Attacks:
Also known as Layer 7 DDoS attacks, these aim to exhaust the target’s resources at the layer where web pages are generated in response to HTTP requests. An HTTP flood is an example, overwhelming the server by forcing it to handle an excessive number of requests.
Understanding the Mechanics of a DDoS Attack
Differentiating a DDoS attack from other cyber threats can be challenging, given the prevalent lack of knowledge among IT professionals and cybersecurity experts regarding the intricacies of these attacks.
In a DDoS attack, cybercriminals exploit the typical interactions between network devices and servers, with a primary focus on the networking devices responsible for establishing connections to the internet, such as routers and switches, rather than individual servers. The objective is to overwhelm the network’s pipe (the bandwidth) or the devices providing that bandwidth.
To illustrate, envision multiple people calling you simultaneously, making your phone unusable for making or receiving calls. In this analogy, the DDoS attack disrupts the normal functioning of your phone. The issue continues until you use your mobile phone provider’s blocking service to thwart those simultaneous calls.
Crucially, the analogy highlights that the solution does not involve fixing, upgrading, or adjusting your mobile device. Similarly, in a DDoS attack, the focus is not on modifying the targeted resource but on implementing fixes, also known as mitigations, between your network and the threat actor. This strategic approach helps restore normalcy by addressing the connection between your network and the attackers, safeguarding against the disruptive impact of the DDoS assault.
How to Identify DDoS Attacks: Key Indicators
Differentiating DDoS attacks from regular network issues is crucial due to their impact on availability. While these attacks may initially appear ordinary, recognizing specific behaviours is essential for accurate identification. Conducting a detailed traffic analysis helps assess whether an attack is occurring and helps in identifying the attack method. Here are key indicators that may signal a DDoS attack:
1. Multiple requests from one or several IP addresses in rapid succession.
2. Sudden spikes in traffic from users sharing common behavioural traits, such as device type, geographical location, or browser.
3. Testing the server with a pinging service results in timeouts.
4. The server responds with a 503 HTTP error, indicating overload or maintenance downtime.
5. Unusual and consistent increases in bandwidth, deviating from normal server operation.
6. Traffic spikes occurring at uncommon times or in an unusual sequence.
7. Unusually large increases in traffic directed at a particular endpoint or webpage.
These indicators not only help identify an attack but also offer insights into the type of attack. Protocol or network-level issues, like the 503 error, may suggest a protocol-based or network-centric attack. Conversely, traffic directed at applications or web pages could indicate an application-level attack.
How to Prevent From DDoS Attacks
Preventing DDoS attacks involves adopting key capabilities to mitigate threats. It ensures service availability and minimizes false positives. Those capabilities include:
1. Automation: Using fully automated attack lifecycle solutions that require no manual intervention ensures efficient protection against dynamic and automated DDoS attacks.
2. Behavioral-Based Protection: Utilizing solutions employing machine learning and behavioural-based algorithms helps distinguish legitimate behaviour from malicious attacks. It ultimately minimizes false positives.
3. Scrubbing Capacity and Global Network: Having a strong global security network with significant scrubbing capacity is essential for mitigating large-scale volumetric attacks.
4. Multiple Deployment Options: Flexibility in deployment models (hybrid, on-demand, or always-on cloud protection) allows organizations to make DDoS mitigation to their specific needs, network topology, and threat profile.
5. Comprehensive Protection: Adopting DDoS mitigation solutions that provide broad protection beyond network-layer attacks ensures resilience against evolving threat landscapes.
That’s it, understanding, identifying, and preventing DDoS attacks is crucial for organizations. Particularly those looking to safeguard their online operations. You may know, the strategies used by malicious actors also evolve along with technology. That’s why, it is crucial for businesses to stay alert and use strong cybersecurity measures to mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks.
How do DDoS Attacks Work?
Usually, a DDoS attack involves the aggressor using a computer system’s vulnerability to designate it as the DDoS master. This master system then identifies other susceptible systems, which secures control by either infecting them with malware or evading authentication controls through methods such as cracking default passwords on widely used systems or devices.
A computer or network device manipulated by the intruder is termed a zombie or bot. The attacker establishes a command-and-control server to direct the network of bots, commonly referred to as a botnet. The individual overseeing a botnet is known as the botmaster. It is a term also applied to the initial system enlisted into the botnet to regulate the spread and activities of other systems within it.
Botnets can have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of nodes, and they are becoming increasingly common. There might not be a set maximum for botnet size. After the botnet is established, the attacker floods the target domain with traffic from the hijacked devices. This taking it offline.
The victim of a DDoS attack is not always the exclusive target, as these attacks involve and impact numerous devices. The devices responsible for routing malicious traffic to the target may also experience a degradation of service. Particularly, even if they are not the primary focus.
Noteworthy Examples of DDoS Attacks
Apart from the previously mentioned IoT-based DDoS attacks, recent incidents include the following:
– In 2018, GitHub experienced what is considered the most significant DDoS attack to date. This assault struck the platform, widely utilized by millions of developers for sharing and posting code, with an overwhelming volume of traffic.
– A volumetric DDoS attack in 2020 targeted New Zealand’s Exchange, leading to several days of offline status.
– The 2019 Great Cannon DDoS operation originating from China aimed at a website utilized for coordinating pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The attack caused substantial congestion on the site. It highlights the utilization of DDoS attacks in social movements. Not only hackers but also hacktivists and government-affiliated organizations frequently use DDoS attacks to draw public attention to a specific cause or group.
– In 2020, threat actor groups Fancy Bear and Armada Collective issued DDoS threats against various organizations, demanding a bitcoin ransom for resolution. This serves as an example of the coordinated use of DDoS attacks and ransomware.
How to Identify a DDoS Attack?
The most obvious indication of a DDoS attack is a sudden slowdown or unavailability of a site or service. However, as several factors, such as a legitimate surge in traffic, can produce similar performance issues, a more in-depth investigation is typically necessary. Using traffic analytics tools can assist in identifying some distinctive indicators of a DDoS attack:
- Unusual volumes of traffic originating from a single IP address or IP range
- A surge of traffic from users showing a singular behavioural profile, such as device type, geolocation, or web browser version
- An unexplained upsurge in requests targeting a specific page or endpoint
- Peculiar traffic patterns, including spikes during unusual hours of the day or patterns that seem unnatural (e.g., a spike occurring every 10 minutes)
Additionally, there are other, more specific signs of a DDoS attack that may vary depending on the type of attack employed.
The Reason for DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are not uniform. They serve various purposes based on the motivations of the attackers. Some common motives include:
1. Hacktivism: Activists use DDoS attacks to express dissent or criticism, and target entities ranging from governments to businesses.
2. Cyber Vandalism: Perpetrators, often termed “script kiddies,” engage in DDoS attacks for the thrill or as a remedy for frustration.
3. Extortion: Cybercriminals demand money in exchange for halting or refraining from launching a damaging DDoS attack, targeting organizations for financial gain.
4. Business Competition: DDoS attacks are used as a competitive tool, which disrupts competitors during critical events and causes financial and reputational damage.
5. Cyber Warfare: State-sponsored DDoS attacks aim to silence critics, disrupt essential services, and further political or geopolitical objectives.
6. Personal Rivalry: Individual grievances or disputes, especially in online gaming, can lead to DoS and DDoS attacks as a means of settling scores.
Differentiating DoS and DDoS
| DoS | DDoS |
| Denial of service attack | Distributed Denial of service attack |
| The single system targets the victim system | Multiple systems attack the victim’s system |
| Victim’s PC loaded from data sent from a single location | Victim’s PC loaded from data sent from multiple locations |
| Slower compared to DDoS | Faster than DoS attack |
| Can be blocked easily as only one system is used | Difficult to block; multiple devices, multiple locations |
| A single device used in DoS attack | Volume of bots used simultaneously in DDoS attack |
| Easy to trace | Difficult to trace |
Takeaway
The threat ways are always changing along with the digital ecosystem. And DDoS attacks are one particularly dangerous enemy. Protecting against the potentially huge effects of DDoS attacks requires alertness, strong security measures, and a thorough comprehension of the objectives behind these attacks. You can do so by following the above-mentioned points. Strengthening defences against such cyber threats becomes a crucial component of cybersecurity strategy as firms work toward digital resilience.
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