FragSwitch: Hosting Tutorial: Denial of Service Attacks - FragSwitch

Hello, for this tutorial we're going to talk about Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS).

Introduction
A DDoS is a very specific attack in that it uses hundreds, possibly thousands, of computers to connect to a server at the exact same time. It works by overwhelming either the server or the network. As we've mentioned in a previous entry, once servers have exhausted their resources they can crash or stop responding to client requests.

The computers that carry out these attacks are normally infected with malicious software which allows an attacker to control it remotely. Each of these computers is referred to as a "Bot", they can be used together as a "Botnet" to attack targets.

The reasons for these attacks could range from trying to gain a competitive edge, to groups trying to attack organisations in protest (Hacktivists). While out of the scope of this post, there are some well documented examples of both.

How do you protect against a Denial of Service?
There are companies which offer protection against DDoS, however, these aren't, and can't be, always effective. The only way to keep a site online during an attack is to have a powerful server and enough network capacity to absorb the attack.

The likelihood is that if an attacker really wants your site down, they will keep attacking until you're down or they've run out of resources. In a world with hundreds of Botnets with hundreds of thousands of bots, there is a very high chance your site will go down before the attackers run out of steam.

Conclusion
DDoS are very difficult to stop unless you have a large amount of money to invest in DDoS resistance. With that said, they do not happen to everyone and are very unlikely to happen against average Joe Blogger.

Our next tutorial will be in a month, as always feel free to leave a comment or contact us.