Cybersecurity and DDoS
DDoS
Charles Parker, II
Over the recent year, there have been a number of articles centered on hacking and attacks, intended to disrupt business and consumer behaviors. One area that has been discussed at length has been the DDoS attack. As the acronyms continue to be thrown about, some may not know about the details. Recently the largest DDoS attack at 1.7Tbps was recorded. In the work environment, this may affect the consumer’s and business ability to login for a web-oriented service, not allow for a secure method to share files, or allow them to order supplies, among other various activities.
A DoS (denial of service) may be caused via too much data being present in memory. This may be due to some form of an accident or other activity with limited actors. A DDoS (distributed denial of service) on the other hand is rather intentional. These attacks have a malicious purpose of generally not allowing a business’ persons to connect with them to share data or files, or to not allow the consumer to purchase goods or services online. These generally work by the target being inundated by a mass amount of packets being sent to them from many sources located in various geographic locations. One of the latest attacks involved the attackers high-jacking internet connected consumer electronics (i.e. camera) and using these to send the vast number of packets. Another method is for the attacker to use a rather large number of botnets to send these packets. When this occurs, the business is not able to fully function.
This has the potential to be a nightmare for the business, cybersecurity researchers, and any other target. During the attack, the business transactions, be these retail or operations. There are a number of services to be contracted with in order to defend against this. With a portion of the largest attacks though, even this is tough.
About the Author - Charles Parker, II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, performing pen tests, vulnerability assessments, consulting with small- to medium-sized businesses to mitigate and remediate their issues, and preparing IT and info sec policies and procedures. Mr. Parker’s background includes work in the banking, medical, automotive, and staffing industries.