Different types of DDOS
Abstract
This paper analyses different types of DDOS attacks while presenting the most effective measures for detecting and mitigating such attacks. The content acknowledges faults in some mitigation measures, therefore allowing the reader and future researchers to identify weaknesses of different techniques. The study also includes a diagram to illustrate how DDOS attacks are launched. Finally, the research outlines the essential elements of handling DDOS attacks, thus creating an opportunity for future researchers to enhance knowledge on the topic.
Introduction
A denial of service can be defined as a malicious act aimed at preventing legitimate users from accessing specific websites and web services. On the other hand, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) is a coordinated attack targeting the availability of services on a network or system. In this case, the services affected by the attack are referred to as primary victims, while the compromised systems used to launch the attack are known as secondary victims.
The distributed denial of service is distributed using the target computer systems, hence making it difficult for forensics to track. The attacker uses many computers as attack platforms and is, therefore, able to multiply the effectiveness of the attack on target systems or networks. In February 2000, Yahoo.com became a victim of a DDOS attack that lasted nearly two hours. As a result, Yahoo.com suffered a revenue loss of up to $500,000 attributed to advertising. The contribution of this paper is to analyze the types of DDOS attacks, their targets and motivation as well as preventive and mitigation measures (Vlajic & Zhou, 2018).
Figure 1. An illustration of a DDOS attack