What are DDoS attacks?

DDoS attacks tend to pop up a lot in the news as more and more websites become victims of them, but what are they exactly? Read below to find out.

DoS attacks

To understand a DDoS attack, you first need to know what a DoS attack is. DoS stands for ‘denial of service’, and so a DoS attack attempts to bring about denial of service to a website or server by flooding it with traffic. This is achieved in a number of ways, but usually involves taking advantage of exploits which the site or server hasn’t protected itself against.

DDos attacks

A DDoS attack then is a ‘distributed denial of service attack’, this has the same end goal as a DoS attack (to result in a denial of service for the target), but goes about it in a slightly different way. Specifically, a DDoS attack uses multiple computers which are controlled by hackers either directly or through being compromised by Trojans, to target a specific website or server. Essentially, it is a brute force attack which bombards the website with too much traffic for it to cope with. A DDoS attack also tends to have more victims than a DoS attack as many of the systems attacking the target belong to the general public and have simply been infected with a Trojan, thereby harming all of those computers and their users as well as any intended target.

Targeted attacks

Unlike many hacks which simply infiltrate whoever happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or people who don’t have an adequate firewall and anti-virus, DDoS attacks tend to be targeted at a specific company or individual, and as such, there is normally an agenda behind them - political or otherwise. Recently, the collective hacker ‘Anonymous’ and splinter group ‘Lulzsec’ have become infamous for targeted hacks, some of which were DDoS attacks. However, the practice has existed among hackers for many years.

General advice

As an individual, it is unlikely that you will become the victim of a DDoS attack. Other hacks, viruses and Trojans are far more likely to attack your PC. However, it is always advisable to have a strong firewall and anti-virus and to run regular scans. Also, be careful about which sites you visit in order to minimise your chances of falling victim to any kind of cyber attack.