Get Certified
"*" indicates required fields
"*" indicates required fields
"*" indicates required fields
Home / Cybersecurity / What is a DOS Attack Denial of Service
After a short period of decline in incidences, denial of service (DoS), and Distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) have become rampant once more. Whenever there is a major internet security incident, it mostly means that a DDoS attack occurred. These cybercriminals often target websites, personal accounts, servers, and other services to overload its internet traffic until the victim’s system becomes impassive to legitimate requests.
Virtually every business organization and governmental agencies consistently need the services of ethical hackers to tackle the mounting threats to Cybersecurity. In the modern-day of IT security, Certified Ethical Hackers are invaluable, which is why they work alongside some of the best and largest organizations across industries such as ICT, financial, healthcare, energy, and government, among several others!
Ethical Hacking is a standard requirement for handling DDoS and DoS attacks. The Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) training and credentialing program is an esteemed and reliable Ethical Hacking program offered by EC-Council and teaches you everything you need to know about DoS attacks and how to conduct one ethically.
A denial-of-service attack or DoS attack is a type of cyber-attack that occurs when an attacker seeks to render a computer or other networks inaccessible to its authorized users by momentarily or permanently interrupting the normal operations of a host linked to the Internet. Simply put, a denial-of-service (DoS) attack occurs when a cybercriminal prevents an authorized user from retrieving their personal data or files.
Typically, in a DoS attack, a single or group of computers are used to launch an attack. When these attacks are launched, they negatively affect an extensive array of services, including online accounts, private data, emails, websites, and other platforms that depend on the compromised computer or network.
A denial of Service attack is often achieved using TCP and UDP packets. In a DoS attack, the perpetrators flood the user’s system with illegal traffic or service requests to inundate its resources and stop it from executing intended tasks.
A DoS attack can target distinct computers or a whole network system. These attacks can be costly for a company, both in terms of finance and timewise, until their services and other affected resources are restored or become accessible.
To learn how a DoS attack works, sign-up for the Certified Ethical Hacker course!
Here, the perpetrator exploits the broadcast address of a weak network by distributing spoofed packets that belong to the aimed device. Once the receivers of these spoofed packets respond, their Internet Protocol (IP) address is then flooded with those responses.
Considering the fact that a particular Internet Broadcast Address can sustain at most 255 hosts, a smurf attack works by intensifying each ping by 255. The outcome is that the network becomes slow to a level where it becomes difficult to use and discarded.
The term “botnet” refers to a group of hijacked internet-connected devices that are operated remotely from a Command & Control Center (C&C) by a malicious attacker. A botnet is a combination of the word network and robot and each compromised computer is referred to as a bot. These attacks characteristically comprise of unsecured IoT devices, PCs, smartphones, and sometimes resources from public cloud services.
A botnet is designed by a malicious hacker to achieve malicious tasks or execute illegal actions, such as stealing data, sending spam, fraudulently clicking on ads, ransomware, or Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Botnets work by allowing attackers to execute DDoS attacks by seizing the control of several computers and disrupting the traffic source of the traffic. It is often hard for security teams and other security applications to identify a DDoS attack until it is too late.
Malicious hackers use malware and other methods to infect a device, rendering it into a “zombie” in the perpetrator’s botnet. Although some malware may have an immediate effect on the device or network owners, DDoS botnet malware can have diverse stages of visibility. Some of this malware is intended to run mutely as a background while mutely awaiting commands from the “bot herder” or attacker. Other malware is intended to take absolute control of the device or network.
applications to try to exhaust resources, by generating as many transactions and processes as possible. The reason for this approach is, to make the operations initially seem like legitimate requests from users, pending the time when it will be too late, and the victim is inundated and incapable of responding.
These attacks are targeted at the layer where a server creates web pages and reacts to Http requests. The size of this attack is usually calculated in requests per second (RPS), with merely 50 to 100 RPS often needed to bring down a number of mid-sized websites. These attacks involve GET/POST floods, low-and-slow attacks, attacks that target Apache, Windows or OpenBSD vulnerabilities, and Http floods, among others.
DDoS attacks are fast becoming the most threatening attacks in the Cybersecurity industry. In recent years, DDoS attacks have grown in volume and number, exceeding a terabit per second in 2016. Whether it’s a DDoS or a DoS, there are different malicious reasons why cybercriminals execute DoS and DDoS attacks. Businesses, individuals, and even nation-states have different motivations for these cybercrimes. However, the most common include:
The most popular motivation for DDoS and DoS attacks is to extort money. The cyber-attacker demands a ransom after sending a crippling DDoS attack. Then, the attacker will promise to halt the attack and restore back the network once a certain amount has been paid. This type of attack is facilitated by the presence of booter services and stresser.
More than a few well-known online software companies have fallen victim to these DDoS attacks, including Vimeo, MeetUp, Basecamp, and Bitly. Some even went temporarily offline, declining the requests of the extortioner.
Hacktivism
This is used by an ideological movement or group to launch personal and political attacks. Hacktivists use DDoS attacks to express their criticisms for everything, ranging from politics to current events. When these groups dislike your ideology, they take down your site. It isn’t unheard of for hacktivists to put the websites of political organizations or businesses they disagree with offline to stress their antagonism.
One of the popular hacktivist groups is anonymous. Anonymous is accountable for the cyber-attack against ISIS that occurred in 2015. Also, they are responsible for the attack against the Brazilian government and World Cup promoters that occurred in 2014.
Businesses are now using these tools to settle business feuds. Sometimes these attacks are launched to keep a competitor from partaking in a significant business venture. Whereas, other attacks are introduced to completely cripple a business and keep them offline indefinitely.
The motivation for this is to keep the competitor out of service so that their consumers would rush to the opposition. While this is taking place the reputation of the company would be tampered with and they will also encounter huge financial losses.
Business motivated attacks are often well-sponsored and accomplished by experts in the fields. These hackers perform timely investigation and exploit proprietary applications as well as resources to endure tremendously destructive and tenacious DDoS attacks.
Distributed denial of service and Denial of service attacks are two of the most frightening threats faced by modern-day organizations. Only a few types of attacks can have such detrimental financial impacts as that of a successfully executed DDoS and DoS attack. A recent survey suggested that the average cost of a DDoS attack ranges between 20,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars per hour.
Not only will you be put out of action for a considerable period of time, but a successful DDoS attack can also cause some of your systems to start acting up. With each day you are unable to access your computer and other devices, you begin to incur costs you would otherwise have been spared. This is why you need a Certified Ethical Hacker to safeguard your systems and networks.
Nearly all DDoS attacks begin with sharp traffic spikes. All these could be symptoms of hackers executing “dry runs” to test your defenses before launching a full-sized attack. So, it would be helpful if you’re able to differentiate between an abrupt surge of genuine visitors and the beginning of a DDoS attack.
Even though your overprovision attempt may not necessarily avert an attack, it will give you some extra time to take deliberate actions before your website become completely saturated.
You need to consult a cybersecurity expert, particularly one that specializes in DDoS attacks. For large attacks, the ability to get your business back online may depend on a Cybersecurity expert. When you consult a cybersecurity expert, particularly a Certified Ethical Hacker, they test a wide range of assaults and not only those with which you are acquainted.
Another effective alternative is to familiarize yourself with everything there is to know about these types of attacks. This can go a long way in preventing and mitigating further attacks. What better way to gain ample knowledge about DDoS, DoS, and other related attacks than to become a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
Distributed denial of service and Denial of service attacks are two of the most frightening threats faced by modern-day organizations. Only a few types of attacks can have such detrimental financial impacts as that of a successfully executed DDoS and DoS attack. A recent survey suggested that the average cost of a DDoS attack ranges between 20,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars per hour.
Not only will you be put out of action for a considerable period of time, but a successful DDoS attack can also cause some of your systems to start acting up. With each day you are unable to access your computer and other devices, you begin to incur costs you would otherwise have been spared. This is why you need a Certified Ethical Hacker to safeguard your systems and networks.
C|EH Master is the next progression for the world-recognized Certified Ethical Hacker credential and a logical ‘next step’ for those holding the prestigious certification. Earning the C|EH Master designation is your way of learning, understanding, and putting your knowledge about Ethical Hacking to work.
EC-Council will award the C|EH (Master) certification to you if you clear the C|EH certification and the C|EH (Practical) credential. Ready to become a Certified Ethical Hacker? Click here to complete the C|EH (Practical) exam.
Yes, it is a crime to DDoS. This is stipulated under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. If and when you launch a DDoS attack against a network or device without adequate authorization, you can be charged with 10 years’ imprisonment and you’ll be required to pay a fine of about $500,000.
Sweeper attack is another malicious attack that sweeps, that is, deletes all the data from the computer or network. While Denial of Service is a type of attack that prevents legitimate users from accessing their personal data or files.
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack occurs when a cybercriminal prevents an authorized user from retrieving their personal data or files. An example of a DoS is using TCP and UDP packets
A passive attack is a network attack that allows a system to be monitored and sometimes scanned for vulnerabilities and open ports. Both denial of service and Distributed denial of service attacks are active attacks that prevent legitimate users from retrieving certain resources from.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a malicious effort to render an online service or website inaccessible to users. The common types of DDoS are UDP floods, Ping of Death, Ping Flood, SYN flood, HTTP flood, Zero-Day attack, and Slowloris.