Ways to protect against DDoS attack

In the current digital landscape, a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is akin to an incessant barrage against your online fortress’s gates. It’s a common yet potentially devastating method used by cyber attackers to disrupt the flow of traffic to your website. This blog post aims to demystify DDoS attacks and offer concrete steps you can take to protect your digital domain.

What is a DDoS Attack?

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic to a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attacks are carried out using multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. They can target a wide variety of important resources, from banks to news websites, and present a major challenge to ensuring information remains accessible.

Suggested article: What SYN flood attack is?

How DDoS Attacks Work

DDoS attacks function by utilizing an army of compromised computers, also known as a botnet, to send a high volume of requests to a target’s IP address. With enough requests, the target is no longer able to process legitimate requests and thus becomes unavailable. The attacker can also exploit the complexity of DNS services by manipulating DNS records, or by attacking the DNS itself, which is a critical part of the web’s infrastructure responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses.

Ways to Mitigate DDoS Attacks

Protecting against DDoS attacks involves several strategies and solutions:

• Utilize DNS Services: Implement robust DNS services that can handle high volumes of traffic and are resistant to DDoS attacks. Secondary DNS services can serve as a backup to the primary DNS service, providing redundancy.
• Anycast DNS: Anycast DNS can distribute DNS requests among a network of servers in various locations, rather than just one. This disperses traffic across multiple points, making it harder for a DDoS attack to succeed.
• Improve Network Security: This includes upgrading firewalls, switches, and routers that can help filter out malicious traffic before it reaches critical areas of the infrastructure.
• DDoS Mitigation Tools: These are specialized solutions that can scrub traffic, singling out and blocking malicious packets, while allowing legitimate traffic to continue.

DDoS Attack vs. DoS Attack

While both DDoS and DoS (Denial of Service) attacks aim to disrupt service availability, the key difference lies in scale and origin. A DoS attack originates from a single Internet connection, while a DDoS attack comes from multiple sources and is often global, making it far more dangerous and challenging to mitigate.

Conclusion

In the digital age, DDoS attacks are a formidable threat to organizations of all sizes. By understanding what a DDoS attack is, how it operates, and the ways to mitigate such attacks, including leveraging DNS services and infrastructure, businesses can better prepare themselves against these digital onslaughts. It is not just about having the right tools, but also about understanding the intricacies of network traffic, DNS operations, and the difference between DDoS and simpler DoS scenarios.