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Today, we will discuss how to prevent DDoS attacks. Read this article to know which DDoS attacks affected Twitter, Reddit, The New York Times and Paypal at once. On our Blog channel, we share thoughts on recent developments in the tech industry, follow us not to miss new articles.
What is a DDoS attack?
A Distributed-Denial-of-Service – DDoS Attack is a malicious attempt to disturb the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network. This is often done by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic. In other words, DDoS can take down a server by sending too many requests for information, exposing it and hampering an organization’s usual business operations.
According to a survey from Netscout, over 10 million DDoS attacks were launched last year. Hackers unleashed DDoS attacks on Government, Healthcare, Financial, E-commerce companies, Streaming services and others, disrupting business operations.
Let’s take a real example of domain name system provider Dyn. It was assaulted by a one Terabit per Second traffic flood that then became the new record for a DDoS attack at that time. On the map, you can see internet outages in Europe and North America caused by the Dyn cyber attack. Dyn lost 8% of its business as a result, it took down the world’s largest internet services in a single weekend.
Twitter, Reddit, The New York Times and Paypal were among the giant websites that were affected.
Types of DDoS attacks
Volumetric Attacks
This is the most popular DDoS where a bot overwhelms the network’s bandwidth by flooding it with numerous fake requests on every available port. As a result, the network rejects regular, legitimate traffic. According to Arbor Networks, 65% of DDoS attacks are volumetric in nature.
Application-Layer Attacks
They target the application itself, focusing on specific vulnerabilities or issues, resulting in the application not being able to deliver content to the user. It directly affects web traffic by targeting the HTTP, HTTPS, DNS or SMTP protocols.
From our experience at EZtek, this type of attack is usually difficult to detect and fix because it easily imitates real online traffic.
Protocol Attacks
They are typically directed at network components that are used to validate connections. They work by delivering pings that are intentionally sluggish or faulty causing the network to consume a lot of memory during the verification process. Protocol attacks can also target firewalls by transmitting massive amounts of purposely erratic data.
5 Ways to prevent DDoS Attacks
#1 Create a denial of service response plan
We at EZtek recommend going over your system and identifying any potential security flaws, as well as outlining a clear response from your company in the event of a DDoS attack.
#2 Secure your infrastructure with DDoS attack prevention solutions
- Firewalls
- Network monitoring software
- Antivirus and anti-malware applications
- Threat monitoring systems
These are all examples of important security tools. Use them to monitor your network’s baseline traffic and set up alarms for unusual activity.
#3 Understand the warning signs
Here are a few warning signs to watch out for:
- Slowing down of the network
- Your website goes offline
- You’re getting a lot of spam
All of these things could indicate a DDoS assault requiring you to take immediate action.
#4 Adopt cloud-based service providers
Now, even though adopting the cloud will not completely prevent DDoS attacks, it will help to alleviate them. This is because the cloud has more bandwidth than on-premise resources and the cloud structure means that many servers are not in the same location.
#5 Monitor for unusual activity
This way, your company will detect and neutralize a DDoS attack in real time.
This blog was prepared by the EZtek team. EZtek helps top brands worldwide to innovate and accelerate digital transformation. We provide world-class enterprise software engineering, design and technology consulting services.
