What is a DDOS attack?

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to all its users. What makes this type of attack “distributed” is the joined efforts of a group of attackers who all have the same common goal – preventing web servers and websites from working properly.

Here’s a simple, easy to understand version of what a DDOS attack is:

Imagine there are two people; Bob and Sarah, they’re trying to have a conversation. Tom comes along and he wants to run a DOS (denial of service) attack against Bob, so he simply talks and talks constantly to Bob to the point where Sarah can’t have her conversation with Bob. This can be easily stopped if Bob starts ignoring Tom, he can then have a normal conversation with Sarah.

Tom now wants a better method to ruin any of Bob’s conversations, so he recruits Dave and Jim to help. Tom, Dave and Jim now all talk continuously to Bob, now it’s almost impossible for him to have a conversation with anyone else. This is known as a DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack.

So let’s relate this to the real world:

Bob is a web server or website. Sarah is the user. Tom, Dave and Jim are the perpetrators who sent out the DDOS attack.

Given enough load or traffic the webserver will then become slower and even crash – resulting in them going offline so nothing can be served or used.

Who are the DDOS attackers and why do they do it?

The DDOS attackers could be anyone in the hacker community, possibly the same guys who write viruses or have a grudge to bear against that certain webserver or website. These days it’s so easy to download attack tools off the internet, anyone can download them and anyone can use them, but why do the hackers attack?

Some are motivated by extortion and blackmail or purely to gain an advantage over the competition, although it has been said that the main motivations behind a DDOS attack are ideological hacktivism (the use of computers and computer networks to promote political ends, chiefly free speech, human rights, and information ethics) and internet vandalism (website defacement and/or denial-of-service attacks).

Are we protected?

Most of our datacentres are protected against DDOS attacks, sometimes one might slip through, but we are then warned about the attack and deal with the problem fast enough before any real damage is done.

Unfortunately the chances of having a DDOS attack are higher than ever, they can seriously disrupt and pose a huge threat to businesses who offer online services to customers, employees and business partners.

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town