DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service is one of the most dangerous forms of cyber attack. Multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing it to stop working for a period.
The attack is usually carried out by cyber criminals to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.
How a DDoS Attack Can Impact Your Business?
Hundreds of organizations face losses each year because of these attacks. To perform a DDoS attack, the hackers recruit an army of bots by employing or hacking into hundreds of thousands of computers or devices.
They develop specialized malware, which is shared via compromised websites, email attachments, or via an organization’s network. Malware then spreads to as many vulnerable devices as possible in a very short time.
Most internet users are tricked into running this malware and unintentionally turn their computer into a bot by providing the access point of their computer to hackers. Once a computer turns into a bot, it connects with the attacker’s command and control servers and begins to accept orders from centralized machines.
The orders from the command and control servers may include the directions for launching the attack from the bot’s malware to a particular target using selected attack methods. Whenever the botnet’s owners wishes to launch an attack, they do so by sending messages to their botnet’s command and control servers with instructions attack a particular target.
All infected machines in the botnet network will comply by launching a coordinated, well-timed and distributed DDoS attack.
The business impact of a DDoS attack can be substantial and can involve financial losses, reputational damage, customer agitation, and legal repercussions. An average duration of a DDoS attack is around twenty-four hours. The motivations behind a DDoS attack can be financially driven (pursuit of crippling a business competitor), hactivism (political), or fun.
Many countries, including Australia, encountered disastrous DDoS attacks in 2016 alone. According to GlobalDots “Top targeting attacking countries in 2016 were South Korea accounting for 29.5% of the attacks, and Eastern Europe countries such as Russia with 10.8%, and Ukraine with 10.1%. Top targeted countries are US accounting for 50.3% of the attacks, United Kingdom with 9.2% and Japan with 6.7%. The following up are Ireland, Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Australia.”
How to Protect Your Online Business from DDoS Attacks?
The scale of DDoS attacks is increasing every year, and it is expected to increase more steeply since it has become easier after the release of the source code of Mirai Botnet in October. However, we have some good news for those who wish to protect their businesses from DDoS attacks.
When compared to other DDoS protection services, PureVPN’s DDoS Protected VPN handles DDoS attacks fairly well; it is capable of surviving severe DDoS attacks of up to 480Gbps. PureVPN’s anti-DDoS add-on hides your real IP from the attackers and filters the incoming traffic to your connection through its anti-DDoS mitigation servers.
A DDoS protection service of such quality assures continued safety and protection of your devices.
About Author (Anas Baig):
Anas Baig is a Digital Marketer & Security Enthusiast. He loves to read & write about Digital Security. If you are interested to get tweets about Marketing & Security! Follow him on twitter @anasbaigdm
