Most organizations rarely take preventive measures until the attack has occurred. The implication of not having a response plan for DDoS attacks can be extremely damaging. Understanding how this attack works and how to mitigate them can help your organization lessen the chances of falling victim to a DDoS attack.
This is why the EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA) program offers seamless learning progress, beginning from where you stopped in your CEH program. Read the article below to find out more!
DDoS Meaning
DDoS is an acronym for distributed denial of service, refers to a type of cyber-attack where a malicious actor tries to make a network or system inaccessible to authorized users. The attacker does this by temporarily or permanently disrupting the services of the host linked to the internet.
A DDoS attack aims to saturate the targets with more traffic than their network or server can handle. The traffic can include fake packets, requests for connections, or incoming messages. Websites and online services are often the targets for DDoS attacks and the ultimate goal is to render them inoperative for a given timeframe.
What Is the Purpose of DDoS attacks?
The main aim of the DDoS attack is to prevent authorized users from accessing their websites by overwhelming their server with more requests than the target can handle. Other motives include:
1. Ransom
Most of the time it is all for the money. Greedy attackers want money they didn’t work for, so they attack those who have worked for it.
2. Political Motives
Sometimes, it’s for political reasons. The web has become a new battlefield for nations to settle their scores. Since most nation-states depend on the internet to run their governmental duties and administrations, DDoS attacks are highly effective cyber weapons.
3. For Fun
Other times, DDoS attacks are just for fun. Though a weird way to have fun, most cyber criminals just love the adrenaline rush that comes with breaking into a system or network regardless of its size.
4. Competition
It isn’t unheard of for competitors to introduce DDoS attacks to crumble or at least disrupt the services of their rivals. At the end of the day, when the website of your rival is down, the chances of traffic being redirected to your website is high.
5. Revenge
At other times, it may be more than a competition. The motive behind a DDoS attack might be darker. This could apply to not just organizations, but individuals and governmental agencies. This type of attack is launched to seek revenge. For instance, an employee who was unjustly let go or an individual with a grudge.
6. Hacktivism
DDoS attacks might be engaged to voice an opinion on the web. The attacker might either support or oppose a certain ideology such as a political ideology, ethical concerns, online gaming, banking procedures, and other business operations.
How bad is a DDoS attack?
According to a survey, DDoS attacks are continuously on the rise. Since DDoS attacks are more narrowly targeted incidents, some businesses are more vulnerable to the disruption of their processes than others. Most organizations underestimate the potential threat posed by DDoS attacks.
Likewise, considering the basic launching cost of a DDoS attack (about 50 dollars per day), it has become the most widespread and affordable cyberattack. DDoS techniques also make it easier to launch an attack with a long-lasting impact on the target. With large numbers of businesses relying on the internet for their day-to-day functions, almost every business is at risk.
Statistics about DDoS Trends
◉ DoS attacks and DDoS attacks are the most widespread form of cyber-attacks.
◉ DDoS attacks are treated as a federal crime in the United States with possible imprisonment as penalties (that is, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).
◉ The rate of recurrence of DDoS attacks has risen more than 2.5 times just between 2014 and 2017.
◉ The average cost of a DDoS attack falls between $20,000 to $40,000 per hour.
◉ According to the survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab, this type of attack might cause considerable losses on an organization’s online resources. The result suggested an average figure between $52,000 to $444,000
◉ The largest DDoS attack occurred on March 5, 2018, and it had a mind-blowing average size of 26.37 GBps in Q2 2018.
◉ In the United Kingdom, the cumulative cost of DDoS attacks was estimated to be £1bn ($1.3 billion) alone in 2019.
◉ The cumulative amount of DDoS attacks has been projected to reach 17 million by 2020 globally.
What can happen if you perform a DDoS attack without permission?
If you perform a DDoS without the permission of the client or user, or you obtain, make, or supply a booter service, it can cost you up to $500,000 fine and you could face a charge of ten years imprisonment.
Is a DDoS attack traceable?
Like a typical botnet, Distributed Denial of service attacks have become sneakier and more difficult to detect. With layers of bot legions masking the initial source, tracing a DDoS attack is a perplexing challenge, especially with the whole smokescreen concept as well as the onion routing procedures.
Now more than ever, tracing a DDoS attack to its source is becoming crucial. In some cases, it is critical to ID the source not only to identify who the perpetrator is, but also because some DDoS attacks will not die if you can’t get to the source.
The question you should be asking is if it is possible to trace the attacker’s IP address because whenever a system is compromised by a DDoS attack, all the identified IP addresses belong to the system of the victims excluding the IP address of the malicious actor. For the CERT, it is particularly hard to detect the perpetrator and the person behind the bots.
Why do we need penetration testing?
Penetration testers or ethical hackers ensure security improvements by testing the vulnerabilities in an organization’s network, information system, and web applications. Penetration testing is the preventative measure that lowers an organization’s risk of real cyber-attacks that can impair the organization’s finances, reputation, consumer trust, and other crucial functions. You need Pen Testing training for the following reasons:
◉ Penetration testing guarantees that the right controls have been applied and that they are effective. It also offers reassurance for information security and senior management.
◉ If your organization is attacked through any social engineering, your security analyst can bypass the tougher perimeter control, revealing the less secured internal asset
◉ Your ECSA can easily assess the vulnerabilities within your organization’s application (software), the infrastructure (hardware), and human resources to improve controls.
◉ It helps you to detect new bugs in existing software. While you can fix vulnerabilities with patches and updates, they can also present new vulnerabilities, which can be avoided with pen-testing.
◉ It helps to test applications that are typically loophole for DDoS and DoS attacks.
Is penetration testing a good career?
In a nutshell, penetration testing is a job for good people who can do bad things to save an organization from all forms of social engineering attacks. Companies are constantly on the lookout for skilled security analysts who can break into their systems or networks, test their vulnerabilities, so they know where the problem lies, and also fix the issues to prevent a potential attack.
Pen testing jobs are the hottest jobs within this industry. Jobs are available within different industries, including finance, healthcare, and other government parastatals. Likewise, they are paid mouth-watering salaries. According to PayScale.com, Penetration Testers are paid an annual mean salary of $83,823.
No need to search for “Penetration testing training near me,” you can save yourself the stress by signing up for our globally recognized Penetration testing course online today!
Source: eccouncil.org
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