denial-of-service (dos) attack
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a form of cyber attack that involves overloading a system or network, making it impossible for legitimate users to access services. DDoS attacks aim to disrupt online services by flooding the server with uncontrollable traffic, resulting in temporary or even permanent system shutdown.
Types of DDoS Attacks
There are many different techniques that can be used in DDoS attacks. Some of the most popular types include:
- Flood Attack: Involves sending a massive amount of requests to the server in a short period, leading to its overload.
- UDP Flood: Utilizes the UDP protocol, sending continuous data packets to the server, increasing the load.
- ICMP Flood: Uses the ICMP protocol to generate multiple ping requests, causing server overload.
Effects of a DDoS Attack
DDoS attacks can have serious consequences for organizations and users. The unavailability of online services can result in loss of customers, trust, and company reputation. Moreover, DDoS attacks can be used to conceal other cyber attacks, such as data theft or infecting systems with malicious software.
Protection Against DDoS Attacks
To minimize the risk of DDoS attacks, companies and organizations should take appropriate security measures, such as:
- Firewall: Network protection against unauthorized traffic.
- Traffic Filtering: Monitoring and blocking suspicious data packets.
- Using CDN services: Distributing traffic across multiple servers to reduce load.
In today’s world, where many organizations store sensitive data online, protection against DDoS attacks becomes extremely important. Therefore, proper understanding and defense against this type of cyber attack are crucial to ensure the continuity of online services.