{"id":36715,"date":"2020-07-13T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/?p=36715"},"modified":"2020-07-13T13:32:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T17:32:05","slug":"ddos-attacks-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/ddos-attacks-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Your Protection System Withstand These 30 Types of DDoS Attacks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DDos\"The phenomenon of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks debuted in the mid-1990s and has since gone through big evolutionary changes. At its dawn, it was largely a prerogative of hacktivists who knocked major internet services offline as a sign of protest against online censorship and controversial political initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to the present day, and the situation is much scarier. Not only are DDoS raids highly sophisticated and impactful, but they are also forming a huge cybercrime economy whose operators are increasingly adept at monetizing their foul play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest addition to their genre is what\u2019s called <\/span>ransom DDoS<\/span><\/a>. Its logic is to mount a destructive attack against an organization and then demand payment for discontinuing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first blush, the idea behind DDoS seems simple: to inundate a network or a web server with more data packets than it can handle. It\u2019s not a misconception, but this model is somewhat oversimplified.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are numerous wicked tricks in malicious actors\u2019 handbooks that allow them to diversify the attack vectors and select the one that exploits a specific victim\u2019s pain points. For instance, if malefactors discover a vulnerable web application when probing an enterprise network for security weaknesses as part of the initial reconnaissance, they will probably use it as a launchpad for a DDoS attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas most defenses you\u2019ll find online are associated with the use of turnkey DDoS mitigation services such as Cloudflare, part of the protection is up to programmers. Crudely coded <\/span>web applications<\/span><\/a> can be susceptible to SQL injection, a dodgy mechanism that gained notoriety for being a common source of DDoS incursions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once such a loophole is identified, the attacker tailors an appropriate query and injects it iteratively into the target website to make the server crash. Cross-site scripting (XSS) bugs also exemplify imperfections, allowing criminals to deluge a site with rogue queries and malware.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanitizing the code of web applications to eliminate SQL, XSS, and other vulnerabilities is an area where programmers can and must kick in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides strengthening the protection of a web service against the scourge of DDoS, this is a prerequisite for creating stable code that delivers a frictionless user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do You Know Your DDoS Attacks Points?<\/span><\/h2>\n

When it comes to cybersecurity, awareness is half the battle. If you know the weak links in your organization\u2019s IT infrastructure that could be potentially exploitable by DDoS actors, you can prioritize the defenses and, at the very least, minimize the risk of encountering a single point of failure (SPOF) scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers single out three overarching categories of DDoS onslaughts: <\/span>volumetric<\/b>, <\/span>network protocol<\/b>, and <\/span>application layer<\/b> attacks. They differ in the targeted components of the network architecture and the mechanisms used to execute the raids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each one spans a handful of subtypes that run the gamut from TCP three-way handshake exploitation to powerful attacks weaponizing legitimate network stress testing tools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The breakdown below will give you an idea of the contemporary DDoS threat landscape in the context of the common attack methods. If you are a programmer, the list can give you some actionable insights into the areas you can focus on to prevent your code from being mishandled by DDoS operators.<\/span><\/p>\n

Volumetric Attacks<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"DDos\"Also referred to as volume-based attacks, these DDoS incursions engage a large number of computers and spoofed internet connections to flood a network or a website with more traffic packets than it can process. The upshot of this traffic amplification tactic is that legitimate users can no longer access the resource.<\/span><\/p>\n