DDoS Attacks: A Primer

What is a DDoS Attack?

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of requests. DDoS attacks are a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack, but they are carried out by multiple computers (called a botnet) rather than a single computer.

How Do DDoS Attacks Work?

DDoS attacks work by sending a large number of requests to the target system, flooding it with so much traffic that it can no longer function properly. This can cause the target system to crash, become slow or unresponsive, or even go offline completely.

Types of DDoS Attacks

There are many different types of DDoS attacks, including: * **Volume-based attacks:** These attacks flood the target system with a large amount of traffic, overwhelming its bandwidth and causing it to crash. * **Protocol attacks:** These attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the target system's protocols, causing it to crash or become unresponsive. * **Application-layer attacks:** These attacks target specific applications running on the target system, causing them to crash or become unavailable.

Protecting Against DDoS Attacks

There are a number of ways to protect against DDoS attacks, including: * **Using a DDoS mitigation service:** These services can help to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks, protecting your systems from being overwhelmed. * **Configuring your systems to resist DDoS attacks:** You can configure your systems to withstand DDoS attacks by limiting the number of requests that can be received from a single source, using firewalls to block malicious traffic, and deploying intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to detect and block attacks. * **Educating your users about DDoS attacks:** You can help to protect your systems by educating your users about DDoS attacks and how to avoid them. Teach your users to be wary of suspicious emails, attachments, and links, and to use strong passwords to protect their accounts.