If you are a web developer who wants to know an attack which is stronger than classic DoS, DDoS can be a perfect answer, since it can be a fastest way to paralyze a server and shutdown a web with supplying it abundant of data. In fact, DDoS is a type of DOS attack which is aimed to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack where multiple compromised systems and are often infected with Trojan. A system can be victims of a DDoS attack if it consists of both the end targeted system and all systems maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack. In short, a server has been made terribly busy by the request of bot/software and the server could not process all of those requests anymore. These fake requests have blocked all requests which are available for the server which cause a company cannot meet the real request or real customer.
How DDoS Attacks Work
A DDoS attack is derived from many different sources potentially hundreds of thousands or more. This technique has made it impossible for anyone to stop the attack simply by blocking a single IP address; plus, it is very difficult to distinguish legitimate user traffic from attack traffic when spread across so many points of origin. Generally, DDoS attacks work in three steps, building capacity, launching attacks, and selling silence.
- Building Capacity
Attackers build networks of infected computers, known as ‘botnets’, by spreading malicious software through emails, websites and social media. Once infected, these machines can be controlled remotely, without their owners’ knowledge, and used like an army to launch an attack against any target. Some botnets are millions are millions of machines strong.
- Launching Attacks
Botnets can generate huge floods of traffic to overwhelm a target. These floods can be generated in multiple ways, such as sending more connection requests than a server can handle, or having computers send the victim huge amounts of random data to use up the target’s bandwidth. Some attacks are so big they can max out a country’s international cable capacity.
- Selling Silence
There are many underground markets that exist to buy and sell botnets or individual DDoS attacks. Through, these specialized online marketplaces, anyone can pay a nominal fee to silence websites they disagree with or disrupt an organization’s online operations. A week-long DDoS attack will cost you $150, this DDoS attack is capable of taking a small organization offline.
So what’s the difference between DoS and DDos Attacks?
If in a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, one may use one computer and one internet connection to flood a targeted system or resource. It works quite different with DDoS, since the DDoS attack uses multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted resource. DDoS attacks are often global attacks, distributed via botnets.
Types of DDos Attacks
There are quite a number of types of DDoS attacks. But the most common attacks are such as follows:
- Traffic attacks: Traffic flooding attacks send a huge volume of TCP, UDP and ICPM packets to the target. Legitimate requests get lost and these attacks may be and these attacks may be accompanied by malware exploitation.
- Bandwidth attacks: This attacks aim to overload the target by sending massive amounts of junk data. This results in a loss of network bandwidth and equipment resources and can lead to a complete denial of service.
- Application attacks: Application-layer data messages can deplete resources in the application layer, leaving the target’s system services unavailable.