I would like to present an article “Preparing for the nextDDoS attack” by Steve McGregory, which can be found at:
http://www.krysinski.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/15110417000224848.pdf.
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt
to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from
multiple sources. They target a wide variety of important resources, from banks
to news websites, and present a major challenge to making sure people can
publish and access important information. Distributed denial of service (DDoS)
assaults continue to be a nuisance for online businesses and their customers.
Worse, the downtime caused by attacks is costly for organizations and frustrating
for consumers. Understanding the methods and capabilities of perpetrators is
essential to maintaining good defenses. Chosen article briefly describes DDoS
attack problem.
If you would like to received more information about DDoS
prevention and mitigation please do not hesitate to contact me via forum or by
e-mail.
- Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
- Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
- Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
- What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
- What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
Regards,
Marcin
1. Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteI assume that unless you hear about DDoS attack he can not name yourself IT professional and if you did not experiance this attack you truly are not computer scientist.
2. Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I try not to store or serve crucial data in my networks - I am only an aware It developer - so I didnt experiance DDoS attack on big scale. However this type of attack is only an framework that can be implemented in other enterprise systems.
3. Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
I try not to store or serve crucial data in my networks I am only an aware It developer so I didnt experiance DDoS attack on big scale. However asked type of attack is only an framework that can be implemented in other current enterprise systems.
4. What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I'm familliar with origin of this kind of attacks but how do I have know current motivation?
5. What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
They are aware and so what.
Even though the media and security companies were already hearing about this DDoS extortion threat, for most webmasters it felt like a foreign threat only affecting very large institutions and financial websites. However, over the course of the last couple of months, I started to see an increasing number of extortion attempts against more average-sized sites. Everything from forums, small e-commerce and even some online gaming properties started receiving the threats and being DDoS’ed
DeleteHave you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteYes I've heard.
Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
Do not
Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
No never.
What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I do not know,
What about DDoS awareness? Are companies aware of DDoS?
Sorry not interested in the subject, I do not know or businesses are aware of that fact.
Hi Maciej,
DeleteBotnet is a group of hijacked Internet-connected devices (occasionally referred to as a “zombie army”), each injected with malware used to control it from a remote location without the knowledge of the device’s rightful owner. From the point of view of hackers, these botnet devices are computing resources that can be used for any type of malicious purposes—most commonly for spam or DDoS attacks. DDoS attack is usually launched from numerous compromised devices (boots), often distributed globally.
Hi Marcin. Yes. I read some time ago about DDoS attacks. Probably like most IT guys first I have heard about similar DOS attacks. But then the popularity of computer networks and the Internet meant that there were new threats like DDoS attacks. And finally couple years ago (it's not my area) I heard about the role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks. I'm not a specialist in the network technology but I believe that the major institutions have solutions that in some way to deal with these types of threats. By the way today in almost every infrastructure layer, there are various protections which help prevent this types of attacks. Of course, nothing is free. In my opinion, on the other hand, you should be aware that almost completely avoid the effects of an attack is impossible. This is due to the specific nature itself of attack. I believe that the use of specialized equipment, good configurations, extra redundancy in all infrastructure area and cooperation with organizations like CERT can significantly help in coping with the effects of DDoS attacks. On the other hand we should remember that paradoxically a large number of security which can be complicated and can be in bad shape can also be a threat. Marcin wonder what you think are the most effective method of dealing with this type of attack? Do you use opensource software? Regards.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment there are so many types of DDoS attacks that is difficult to defend. There is no open source software who can prevent against DDoS. However there is some open source software to do DDoS attacks. At the moment, the best solution is to use DDoS services.
DeleteThere are two primary modes of delivering DDoS services: on-demand and always-on. For both modes, vendors offer a hybrid option, so customers can use their own scrubbing facility for attacks that fall below a certain threshold of velocity and volume but can then fail over to the vendor during larger attacks. All of the vendors we reviewed provide all models of deployment; their preferred approach depends on their infrastructure, their provisioning process, the geographic location of the customer’s data center and their scrubbing center, and their available bandwidth. Security
professionals should consider the pros and cons of each option:
• On-demand solutions provide defensive services only when needed. On-demand solutions are manually or automatically started when either the customer or the vendor detects a DDoS attack.
Vendors sell this mode when attack volume is low and the primary concern is application latency.
The customer (or vendor acting on the customer’s behalf) uses either BGP route changes or DNS redirection to send their network traffic through the vendor’s infrastructure.
• Always-on solutions don’t require routing or DNS changes. Always-on service models have the advantage of not needing to change BGP routing or DNS records. These solutions are best when there is a high frequency of attacks. Many of the providers that offer always-on solutions indicate
they have little impact on application latency. They also have an advantage in that they work well with content delivery applications, as the vendor can bundle DDoS services with content delivery services.
• Hybrid solutions offer the best of both worlds. Hybrid solutions allow security pros to use their own on-premises DDoS scrubbing and web application firewalls as a first line of defense. When these facilities become overwhelmed, the customer can redirect traffic to the vendor’s scrubbing center for additional remediation capacity.
Of the attacks, as such, unless one is blind and deaf, each of us has heard. Subject of DDoS attacks never particularly interested me however. From time to time, something could fall into my hands to read, but I cannot be classified as an expert to speak in the topic. Thank God I have never been the victim of such an attack. I hope that this never happens :) I have not heard about any new trends in DDoS. The role of botnets ? From what I know about these botnets, they self-install during a DDoS attack. Consequently, they turn attacked computer into a "zombie" , who then becomes part of a botnet, which is a hidden network often comprising thousands of computers to server some invisible hacker masters to perform their criminal and nefarious deeds, like stealing people passwords and/or identitites. I think that most companies nowadays employ network/system administrators, who are also experts in computer security. Therefore one would assume that the most of companies are aware of the threat such as DDoS or they have people qualified to know how to fight these threats.
ReplyDeleteHi Kinga,
DeleteDo you know that botnets-for-hire are available from various sources? Their services often being auctioned and traded among attackers. Online marketplaces have even sprung up—these are commercial entities trading in huge numbers of malware-infected PCs. They can be rented and used for DDoS or other attacks (e.g., brute force). Full service DDoS attacks are available for as little as $5 per hour, and the interested party can easily stretch their hour with a monthly plan that averages $38. Within the cybercrime ecosystem, botnet DDoS attacks are a mainstream commodity; prices continually drop, while efficacy and sophistication is constantly on the rise.
Very interesting :) Where did you get this information and pricing from? Do they advertise somewhere on Internet? Send me a link please :)
Delete1. Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to answer your question other than yes/no. Yes, those kind of attacks become more frequent and as an avid Internet user I must have heard about them.
2. Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
Personally I never fell victim to DDoS attack, but I heard about attacks on services I am using.
3. Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
The main trend I heard about is to target the attack and demand the ransom to be paid.
4. What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
Botnets are the engine of any DDoS attack. By forcing the infected computer (a bot) to connect to the site under attack, the perpetrator puts on the very heavy load on the service that on the surface looks as if it was all legitimate traffic. Since each and every site is able to withstand only certain kind of load (and the spike in traffic) this leads to inability to handle valid requests. The problem with connections from bots is, there is usually no way to tear them apart from the real users. That's it.
5. What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
I believe the ones that actually suffered from DDoS attack are painfully aware of them. Another thing is, whether businesses are prepared. Personally, I don't think so. It is next impossible to prevent this kind of attack.
Yes I did. I know services, which were inaccessible for such an attack. Unfortunately popular websites have to fight with tones of requests, so additional massive DDoS attack may cause problems with access to the service. But the way we can find a lot of fake victims of DDoS attack, which had a problem with network or server caused by unproper services configuration. I thought I was this kind of victim in one company but their administrator told me that at 4 P.M. they are starting operating systems updates so their network is almost inaccessible for standard user.
ReplyDelete"Larger botnets can exceed 100,000 zombie computers, which can generate aggregated traffic from 10GBps to 100GBps." botnet raises power of attack by zombie computers affected by trojan etc. Additionally it is much harder to track source of the attack. Companies measure the risk and in single cases they cooperate with specialized institutions.
Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteOf course, a lot of attacks are from China and Russia. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Why-Lizard-Squad-Hacked-Xbox-Live-PSN-69163.html
Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
Nope, but I read about it and it's really hard to fight with DDoS, even if you have a lot resources, scalability and so on.
Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
What do you mean by saying new trends? The most annoying trend is shown by Lizard Squad, attacking PSN, Xbox on christmass.
What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
Botnets work like zombies, most of the botnet "clients" have no clue about it.
What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
Companies are aware, either they are too small to care or to big to care. I mean it, most of them are aware but their risk management is poor. Moreover, it's hard to prevent DDoS. We have similar problem with electricity outages during summer hot days. In my honest opinion no one is ready for DDoS.
Mateusz. I think thay you are right. Recent research has revealed what most people working in the IT security sector already know: that Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become commonplace. However, there's something of a disconnect between acknowledging the risk and actually doing anything to mitigate it.
DeleteMarcin
Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteYes. I usually hear about the attacks once some high profile website or service is taken down (like PSN mentioned by Mateusz P).
Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I've been involved in several Web/SaaS projects and so far I didn't experience any DDoS attacks. Hopefully this won't change in the future.
Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
As I'm not into info sec I don't really follow any news on DDoS. I don't know anything about any new trends in DDoS.
What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I imagine that botnets are actually conducting the attacks by flooding the target with fake traffic.
What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
Most tech companies need to be aware of DDoS. I assume that high profile websites have special teams which work on preventing DDoS attacks. I remember reading somewhere that Facebook is under constant DDoS attack by hackers which try to take it down.
1-Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteThere are four things you need to know right now about DDoS attacks:
-The numbers of threats continue to grow. There are roughly 50 million attacks every year, which calculates to one to two attacks every second of every day.
-Attacks are getting more complex and strike many different parts of a company’s network, often simultaneously.
-DDoS threats are more dangerous in scope and objective. Two-thirds of attacks are one gigabit-per-second (Gbps) or greater, and criminals now use DDoS attacks as diversions to mask illegal activities such as fraud and theft.
-Costs associated with DDoS attacks are soaring. The financial services industry, for example, lost an estimated $17M per DDoS attack in 2012.
2-Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I never used the network for data storage
3- Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
The five major trends DDoS attacks:
-Evolution of the motivation of attacks
-increasing complexity of attacks
-Increased attacks against the cloud
-persistent failure of the firewalls for DDoS attacks
4-What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
Botnet is a generic term for a group of infected computers controlled by a remote attacker. Botnets are usually created by a hacker or a small group of hackers using malware to infect large numbers of machines. The computers in the botnet are often called "bots" or "zombies" and there are no size requirements for a finding a group of computers as a botnet. Small botnets may designate hundreds or thousands of machines, while the biggest botnets can be up to millions of computers.
5- What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
The companies show a sharp revival of interest in the solutions and services to help them protect themselves. of many of these officials are now aware of the serious consequences of a DDoS attack that hits, both financially and in terms of damage to their reputation. They also believe that an approach 'ready-made' or 'automatic' struggle against these attacks is unlikely to be effective in the long term.
Specific threats require, in many cases, specific solutions, DDoS attacks are an example. Firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) on site can handle simple attacks of small scale but they can block the most complex application attacks, become predominant for three or four years. This is why firewalls or neutralizing solutions operating exclusively in the cloud are not enough to protect the network.
Hey, thanks for the article recommendation. Let me answer the questions:
ReplyDelete1. As an IT academy graduate I am familiar with the topic.
2. Yes, many times. Both in real life situations (sites going down, especially during ACTA period) and for experimental and educational purposes in specifically for this purpose isolated testing environment.
3. Well one trend that is noticeable in the few past years is the use of DDoS as way of protest by common people since the tools have become very simple to use (i.e. Anonymous vs many cases).
4. Botnets make it possible to use vast resources in order to clog or deny operation of a service. Infected groups of computers which are not even aware of the fact they are controlled by some central entity perform the attack in a distributed way.
5. Well the guys who are responsible for the network side of the companies service should be aware of these types of attacks and take special countermeasures to guard against them.
Unfortunately you are right. Recent research has revealed what most people working in the IT security sector already know about Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. However, there's big difference between acknowledging the risk and actually doing anything to mitigate it.
DeleteAd 1. Yes
ReplyDeleteAd 2. No
Ad 3. Nope I haven't heard of any.
Ad 4.I think that botnet are let say zombie computers which allow to increase number of attackers. And they are used without owners knowledge.
Ad 5. Yes I think that most of companies are aware of DDOS attacks, but they don't know what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteIt's the one the most popular hacker attack. I never experience any hacker attack in whole my life. Companies should be aware of DDoS attack. Fortunately we can observe usually only something called "wykop efekt". It has similar consequences but different reason. When one person share link to someone's blog thought wykop portal then suddenly a lot of people are able to click on that link. The servers are not prepare to such traffic and the website is just not available.
I think nowadays every computer classes regarding networks teach what is DoS and DDoS. Fortunately I have never experienced this kind of attack. I do not interest in computer networks' safety and do not follow latest news in the field, I don't know the DDos tools mentioned in the article.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion companies are aware of DDoS, but, as we discussed in last semester, most of them have "tick in a box" security policy.
1.Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteYes I have heard about DDoS attacks. It one of the most popular hacker attacks and in spite of it it's still problematic. The costs associated with DDoS attacks are increasing.
2. Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
Fortunately, I have never experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack.
3. Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
I have not heard any new trends in the DDoS threat landscape. I am afraid that I wasn't ever interested in this type of problem so I am not up to date with the topic.
4. What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I have heard it is some kind of a 'zombie army' where a botnet is a group of hijacked Internet-connected devices, each injected with malware used to control it from a remote location without the knowledge of the device’s rightful owner. Botnets are usually used in Spreading malware, spamming, stealing personal information and so on.
5. What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
I think that every self-respecting organization is prepared for this type of attack. It is not ignored.
I have heard about DDoS attack (I believe it was during the IT classes), but that's (maybe fortunately) all what I known about it. I have never experienced such attack, but this is probably because my work if far away from web applications. I am not up to date with trends in the DDoS threats, mostly because it is not particularly in the field of my interests, but it is always good to remind from time to time about threads in IT.
ReplyDeleteI think that companies are aware of DDoS and probably have some startegies for such situations, because inaccessibility of their services can cost them a lot.
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ReplyDeleteDDoS is a powerfull method of attack because it is so simple. In the most primitive level it is just based on flooding the server of the service that we want to attack. Big companies are aware of this threat and they often prepare for it but in my opinion we are not able to stop DDoS, it is impossible. You can think about very specialized alghoritms, you can make load balancing etc. BUT there is always some service that is upfront and this service need to compute whole traffic. This is the weak point. The only solution is to keep everything in cloud and scale up when the attack is happening but it can be very expensive.
ReplyDeleteI heard about the attacks of this type. I never had problems with their sites. However, I know that they generate constantly growing losses. I have a general knowledge, I do not specialize in this field. Most small business owners probably are not aware of these risks. Large corporations certainly know the problem - that is my opinion.
ReplyDelete1 Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, that is popular kind of security risk. That kind of attacks has got many years old, but is is still very dangerous for every company whitch have got somethink community with servers
2 Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I have that luck that I have never be in that kind of trubble. But I know that is only becouse I still preparing to be security for that attacks but olso I know that it is possible to be victim of DDoS though be careful and have duplicate of servers with data.
3 Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
Be careful that is mean I have to be aware of many treatments. But there are so many new, that it is not simple.
4 What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I don’ have idea.
5 What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
If there is good IT security guy, company have to be wise about that kind of attacks.
I'm sure that every person after studies associated with IT area at least heard about DDoS. It is very simple and effective in the same time. I didn't experienced it, maybe except trying to "attack" a friend's computer during exercises. I'm not following new trends in attack techniques, it is not my field. I would call botnets as a tool to perform the DDoS attack. Companies should aware of every kind of attacks. As I heard, the ransomware term is now the most popular in "security considerations" within the companies.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDelete> Yep J
Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
> Yep J
Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
> Yep J
What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
> Hackers capture the machines of many innocent people and use them against the services those very same innocent people ? J
What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
> Companies (don't now), Me (Hell yeah), others (don't know)
P.S.: Malgorzata won't be enjoying the `Yep` s above.. J ...
I am acquired with such kind of vulnerability in networks. I think this type of endangers will increase in next a few years. According to my experience and knowledge about networks DDOS attacks are very efficient and cheap for attackers. We don't know about all such attacks because famous companies hide their struggle with bad guys.
ReplyDelete1. Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteYes, as I've been using shared hosting for last 15 years, I am aware of the problem.
2. Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I've experienced a network outage due to o DDoS attack. It was because I shared the same infrastructure as a victim of one of attacks. Some of my clients experience DDoS attacks a few times a year. They are prepared for that so it doesn't hurt they business anymore.
3. Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
I don't follow cyber security trends.
4. What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I assume that botnets are used to scale the attack so there are more sources and it's much more difficult to prevent.
5. What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
It depends. Internet companies for sure. The can't afford too much of downtime so they invest in cyber security.
1. Have you ever heard about DDoS attacks?
ReplyDeleteYes, as I've been using shared hosting for last 15 years, I am aware of the problem.
2. Have you ever experienced a network outage due to a DDoS attack?
I've experienced a network outage due to o DDoS attack. It was because I shared the same infrastructure as a victim of one of attacks. Some of my clients experience DDoS attacks a few times a year. They are prepared for that so it doesn't hurt they business anymore.
3. Have you ever heard about new trends in the DDoS threat landscape?
I don't follow cyber security trends.
4. What is the role of role of botnets in large-scale DDoS attacks?
I assume that botnets are used to scale the attack so there are more sources and it's much more difficult to prevent.
5. What about DDoS awareness ? Are companies aware of DDoS ?
It depends. Internet companies for sure. The can't afford too much of downtime so they invest in cyber security.