How Does a DDoS Attack Work? 

Recently, the IT industry has witnessed a steady rise in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Such attacks were not discussed or investigated earlier in the cybersecurity world and were considered to be a mere nuisance that was easy to resolve.

Unfortunately, DDoS attacks are a matter of concern now because they are expanding at alarming rates. According to Cisco, DDoS attacks are projected to grow to 15.4 million in 2023. 

Some industries, such as finance, gaming, healthcare, and retail, are more susceptible to DDoS attacks than others. But these attacks are wide-ranging and can attack any sort of industry regardless of its size. It means a DDoS attack is a major cyber threat and can put your business, sales, and reputation at stake.

Here we will walk you through the anatomy of DDoS, how it works, and the effective ways to protect your organization from such attacks.

What is a DDoS Attack?

Distributed Denial of Service, commonly known as DDoS attack, is a malicious cyber threat that attacks websites and servers by disrupting their network services. The perpetrator floods the website with HTTP requests until it is impossible for a website to handle them. 

Hence, a denial of service happens, which means the users can not access the content of such websites. Sometimes, DDoS attacks act as a “smokescreen” to divert staff’s attention while performing a major attack, such as data theft. 

Cyber threats harm your system’s functionality and impact customer trust and sales. So, it is vital to use network security 101, which offers multilayered security that prevents unauthorized users from accessing your network and devices.

The destructive capabilities of DDoS attacks are limited to business data and all types of events, including charities and eSports LAN events. 

How does a DDoS Attack Work?

Hackers carry out DDoS attacks in two phases:

• Phase 1: The attacker creates a botnet of devices. Many computers and devices (for instance, IoT and other peripheral devices) are hacked by ransomware, malware, or social engineering. Such infected devices are called bots, and interconnected bots networks are called botnets. 
• Phase 2: The attacker commands the bots to send multiple requests at the same time to the same IP address of a web server or network. Such bots or zombies send HTTP requests taking up a server’s available bandwidth and forcing it to slow down or crash.

To put it simply, imagine a lot of people are calling you simultaneously, such that you cannot receive any call or use your phone for any other purpose. What would you do? You probably ask the provider to block all the calls.

You might have resolved the situation but not by fixing, upgrading, or adjusting your system. You have used the provider’s blocking service to cut the connection between the callers and your phone. The same happens in DDoS attacks. Instead of modifying the attacked network, you perform fixes to cut the connection between your network and threat actors.

DDoS attacks can last for a couple of days as they cause multiple disruptions with a single attack and are complex to resolve. Moreover, Hackers can also approach your sensitive information, attacking both personal and organizational devices.

Types of DDoS Attacks

Now that you know the basics of DDoS attacks, we will let you delve into the types that can possibly attack your network. The most dangerous types of cyber threats exist in multiple forms, and extreme caution and a robust cybersecurity system are required to tackle them properly. The types of DDoS attacks are:

• Volume or Network-based attacks:

This type of attack works by bombarding the website or server with multiple requests taking up all the bandwidth capacity of that server. All the requests demand a reply, hence rendering the service useless for legitimate users. For instance, UDP flood and ICMP echo requests.

• Fragmentation attacks:

An attacker sends little fragments of a request that are quite slower than usual. As the website has to receive all the pieces of web requests before moving on to new requests, this consumes all the resources indefinitely. For instance, ICMP flooding and Teardrop attacks.

• Application-based attacks:

The application and operating system that service clients’ requests are hacked by the attacker. The essential information is not delivered to the users, and the bandwidth of the server is hogged to the point of crash. For instance, BGP hijacking and HTTP flooding.

• Protocol-based attacks:

In this type of attack, the attacker works to consume all the resources of a targeted website or network system, such as firewalls, load balancers, routing engines, etc., which are meant to protect against such malicious attacks. For instance, ping of death and SYN floods.

DDoS Mitigation Strategies

Although there are no one-size-fits-all solutions when talking about DDoS attack mitigation, the integration of different security tools and comprehensive planning can help resolve the issue; enterprise security professionals suggest the followings tips;

Early Detection:

Early detection helps resolve the issue without causing much damage. A few most common warning signs of a DDoS attack are:

• The response to customers’ requests will slow down or become unavailable.
• The log will display huge traffic in a short span of time.
• Multiple Requests from the same IP address will come to your server.
• Despite no maintenance being underway, you will receive the 503 services unavailable error.
• Ping requests to technology resources will timeout.

These signs will let you take the same proactive measures before the DDoS attack can fully take over your device or network.

Load Balancers and Firewalls:

The best way to mitigate a DDoS attack is by enabling the devices and services designed to handle such attacks. For instance, Load Balancers can do their work for you by detecting the DDoS attack pattern. Other devices, such as dedicated scrubber appliances and firewalls (such as web application firewalls), can act as an intermediary.

These devices are placed between your device and the system used by the attacker. As the attackers use legitimate devices and an internet connection, an intermediary should be used to target the attack instead of these non-malicious sources.

Security Checkup of Logical Ports:

Hackers will use the botnets to scan opened logical ports, making a pathway to overload your network with malicious services. So, closing all the unused ports can help prevent the attack.

Key Takeaways:

DDoS attacks are getting hype because of their significant frequency and sophistication. They are malicious attacks that can disrupt your system and act as “smokescreens” that can lead to a more serious cyber threat. So it is crucial to adopt a multilayer protection system that can easily be integrated with your existing infrastructure to prevent DDoS attacks.