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Cyber ResilienceDoS and DDoS – What is the Difference
The main difference between DoS and DDoS is the number of sources that are generating the traffic and attacking a target. With a DoS attack, a single host generates traffic and focuses the traffic on a target, trying to disable the target.
With DDoS attacks, more than one source of the attack is involved in overloading a target and the number of sources can vary. The biggest DDoS attacks have been reported to use tens of thousands of sources.
Preparing for a DDoS Attack
To be able to protect your organization from a DDoS attack, you must evaluate and ensure that you are prepared to respond to a DDoS attack. This involves having the personnel with adequate expertise that will be able to properly identify when a DDoS attack is taking place and the effects it has on the service being targeted.
Often, cybersecurity personnel do not get notified in time, and the DDoS attack causes a lot more harm than it should. It is thus important to have proper security tools in place to quickly identify an ongoing attack. Additionally, it is best to have a standardized response to DDoS attacks and create a DDoS incident response playbook, documenting each step in the process.
DoS and DDoS – What is the Difference
The main difference between DoS and DDoS is the number of sources that are generating the traffic and attacking a target. With a DoS attack, a single host generates traffic and focuses the traffic on a target, trying to disable the target.
With DDoS attacks, more than one source of the attack is involved in overloading a target and the number of sources can vary. The biggest DDoS attacks have been reported to use tens of thousands of sources.
Preparing for a DDoS Attack
To be able to protect your organization from a DDoS attack, you must evaluate and ensure that you are prepared to respond to a DDoS attack. This involves having the personnel with adequate expertise that will be able to properly identify when a DDoS attack is taking place and the effects it has on the service being targeted.
Often, cybersecurity personnel do not get notified in time, and the DDoS attack causes a lot more harm than it should. It is thus important to have proper security tools in place to quickly identify an ongoing attack. Additionally, it is best to have a standardized response to DDoS attacks and create a DDoS incident response playbook, documenting each step in the process.
Protecting from a DDoS Attack
There are many vendor solutions that can help your organization thwart the ongoing DDoS attacks trying to shut down your websites, services, and applications. Because of this, it can be difficult to differentiate which solution is best and most effective for your organization.
Depending on your organization’s architecture (cloud, hybrid, and on-premises), security solutions will provide you with different levels of safety. Major cloud vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google offer DDoS protection solutions that can handle an enormous amount of traffic. Recently, Microsoft announced that it thwarted the largest DDoS attack ever that reached 2.4 terabytes of traffic per second. The key benefit of Cloud vendor DDoS protection solutions is that they can scale depending on the size of the attack and provide insight into the ongoing attacks.
Besides cloud vendor DDoS solutions, organizations need additional security to effectively protect services from going offline. Web Application Firewalls or WAFs are primarily used to protect organizations’ online presence. This includes any external-facing resources and websites. WAFs proactively block most of the traffic that is deemed anomalous including DDoS type of traffic, and various other attacks. Because they provide protection on a 24/7 basis from many types of attacks, organizations usually invest in these solutions to be able to effectively protect themselves from cyber-attacks.
Protecting from a DDoS Attack
There are many vendor solutions that can help your organization thwart the ongoing DDoS attacks trying to shut down your websites, services, and applications. Because of this, it can be difficult to differentiate which solution is best and most effective for your organization.
Depending on your organization’s architecture (cloud, hybrid, and on-premises), security solutions will provide you with different levels of safety. Major cloud vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google offer DDoS protection solutions that can handle an enormous amount of traffic. Recently, Microsoft announced that it thwarted the largest DDoS attack ever that reached 2.4 terabytes of traffic per second. The key benefit of Cloud vendor DDoS protection solutions is that they can scale depending on the size of the attack and provide insight into the ongoing attacks.
Besides cloud vendor DDoS solutions, organizations need additional security to effectively protect services from going offline. Web Application Firewalls or WAFs are primarily used to protect organizations’ online presence. This includes any external-facing resources and websites. WAFs proactively block most of the traffic that is deemed anomalous including DDoS type of traffic, and various other attacks. Because they provide protection on a 24/7 basis from many types of attacks, organizations usually invest in these solutions to be able to effectively protect themselves from cyber-attacks.
Effective Response to a DDoS Attack
A timely response is the most important factor in preventing damage to your organization and avoiding service downtime. Security solutions play a key role in notifying cybersecurity personnel of an ongoing DDoS attack. Even though security solutions provide protection from a large volume of traffic, that does not mean the cybersecurity team cannot take additional steps to thwart the ongoing attack.
Various defensive measures can be taken to decrease and minimize the load of a DDoS attack. Common methods might include temporary IP blacklisting, blackholing traffic, implementing Captchas on the offending IP addresses, reporting a DDoS attack to an ISP, etc.
Previously one of the most common measures taken was blacklisting the IP addresses the DDoS attack was originating from. Today, this can cause a disruption of legitimate traffic as legitimate users might also try to use your services from the same IP addresses. To avoid blocking your customers from using your service, it is recommended to create a blackhole IP address instead and redirect the DDoS traffic towards it. This will minimize the initial load on your resources and allow you to understand the ongoing DDoS attack.
Another effective method to decrease the traffic from a DDoS attack is to simply implement Captchas for connection requests originating from the offending IPs. This will stop the unwanted traffic and allow for legitimate requests to pass through your protection mechanisms. However, certain DDoS attacks will start generating traffic from different IP addresses if it detects the Captchas.
It is also recommended to report a DDoS attack to your Internet Service Provider or ISP. Arguably, an ISP will more often not be able to take specific actions against the attacker, but your organization will act in accordance with due diligence. It is important to mention that ISPs will not provide any information regarding the attacker without a warrant or a court order, due to the risk of breaking various laws.
DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent and larger in scale as technology improves. There is no reason to think that this trend won’t continue in the same direction in the future. It is thus important for organizations to properly prepare and protect their online presence. By establishing incident response procedures, implementing security solutions, and proactively responding to attacks, organizations will be able to thwart most of the DDoS attacks.
Effective Response to a DDoS Attack
A timely response is the most important factor in preventing damage to your organization and avoiding service downtime. Security solutions play a key role in notifying cybersecurity personnel of an ongoing DDoS attack. Even though security solutions provide protection from a large volume of traffic, that does not mean the cybersecurity team cannot take additional steps to thwart the ongoing attack.
Various defensive measures can be taken to decrease and minimize the load of a DDoS attack. Common methods might include temporary IP blacklisting, blackholing traffic, implementing Captchas on the offending IP addresses, reporting a DDoS attack to an ISP, etc.
Previously one of the most common measures taken was blacklisting the IP addresses the DDoS attack was originating from. Today, this can cause a disruption of legitimate traffic as legitimate users might also try to use your services from the same IP addresses. To avoid blocking your customers from using your service, it is recommended to create a blackhole IP address instead and redirect the DDoS traffic towards it. This will minimize the initial load on your resources and allow you to understand the ongoing DDoS attack.
Another effective method to decrease the traffic from a DDoS attack is to simply implement Captchas for connection requests originating from the offending IPs. This will stop the unwanted traffic and allow for legitimate requests to pass through your protection mechanisms. However, certain DDoS attacks will start generating traffic from different IP addresses if it detects the Captchas.
It is also recommended to report a DDoS attack to your Internet Service Provider or ISP. Arguably, an ISP will more often not be able to take specific actions against the attacker, but your organization will act in accordance with due diligence. It is important to mention that ISPs will not provide any information regarding the attacker without a warrant or a court order, due to the risk of breaking various laws.
DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent and larger in scale as technology improves. There is no reason to think that this trend won’t continue in the same direction in the future. It is thus important for organizations to properly prepare and protect their online presence. By establishing incident response procedures, implementing security solutions, and proactively responding to attacks, organizations will be able to thwart most of the DDoS attacks.
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