An account of a DDoS attack and defending mechanisms
The DDoS or distributed denial-of-service can be regarded as any malicious attack that completely disrupts the function of the targeted service, network, or server. The attack can be so powerful that it overwhelms the server or the network with unnecessary internet traffic (Douligeris & Mitrokotsa, 2003). The attack is regarded as illegal, and the attackers might be fined a hefty amount along with 10 years of imprisonment.
DDoS attack
In November 2019, the UK Labor Party was hit by a second DDoS attack at the time of the general election (BBC News, 2020). It was a second attack, and it was a successful one. The ways in which the DDoS attack occurred has created news and can be considered as one of the most dangerous attacks in the history of cyberattacks. Consequently, the users experienced difficulties while accessing the internet. The attacks probably arrived from Brazilian and Russian computers. The labor source informed the public about the origin of the attacks. It was clear that the DDoS attack has no links with the state. It has been noted that the first attack on the Labor Party was not a large-scale attack; however, the second one ultimately affected the operations of the party. The purpose was to flood the computer server and make it offline.
Nevertheless, the party tried to deal with the attack efficiently. The attack overwhelmed the computer servers, and consequently, the software was crashed. The attack has been carried out by a hijacked network of computers along with botnet, internet-related devices. The owners were not aware of the involvement of their equipment. The Labor Party has been using the software of Cloudfare to provide complete protection to its systems. The company, Cloudfare, boasts that it possesses the capacity to handle such DDoS attacks, and this implies that it can secure its clients.
Identifying the defending mechanisms for the specific attack
It would have been possible to defend against such a DDoS attack by following the best practices. A few defend mechanisms have been outlined that are useful mitigating ways.
- Using Flow-based monitoring can be useful in case of volumetric attacks. However, in the case of application attacks and network protocols, this system might not work (Wang et al., 2015).
- DDoS protection requires four basic systems in place. These are precision, scalability, wartime response efficiency, and lastly, affordability. These would ensure complete protection from attacks.
- A modern approach can be taken that would ensure top-to-bottom protection. The modern approach would help overcoming the organizational issues; ensure intelligent automation with the help of machine learning and in-depth detection.
- Cloud Scrubbing could be a helpful solution for the company as it would divert traffic and eliminate the chances of malicious attacks.
- A vital defense strategy of DDoS is threat intelligence. It will help the companies to identify threats on time, and it can safeguard its operations.
- The attack could have been prevented by informing the IR team. Alerting them on time would have escalated the mitigation tactics faster.