Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise. Find out everything you need to know about them and how you can protect you and your business from falling prey to them.
What is a DDoS?
A distributed denial of service attack is an attempt by a malicious party to extort money from you or your business. They do this by attempting to inhibit a service that is crucial to your business. They may prevent you from accessing anything, from servers to devices, to service, to networks, to applications. The attackers will flood the target with requests for data in order to overwhelm and crash the system, something which could be crucial for your business’ operation. With an RDDoS (ransom distributed denial of service) attack, the malicious party will likely threaten you with the attack via ransom note. They may also carry out a small demonstration attack to show you that they are serious and are capable of carrying the attack out in order to get you to pay the money that they request.
How is it evolving?
DDoS and RDDos attacks have recently become more prominent and are being targeted at all kinds of businesses of all different sizes. While the popularity of these types of attacks have seemed to waver, internet security company CloudFare has reported a resurgence of them in recent times in terms of both the frequency and the sophistication of these attacks. They have particularly seen a resurgence of RDDoS attacks in which hackers demand ransom from organisations.
What can you do to protect yourself?
During an attack:
If you or your organisation has received a DDoS threat, the most important thing to do is stay calm. Do not pay the ransom. This will only encourage hackers and will not necessarily deter them from attacking your systems anyway once they have been paid. You should notify law enforcement with a copy of the ransom letter.
Before an attack:
If you have not yet experienced a DDoS attack and you want it to remain that way, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself from this threat. Check with your internet security company what protocols they have in place to protect yourself. Cloudflare, for example, have settings such as Attack Mode that perform extra security checks to prevent the risk of being attacked. You can enable alerts for attacks and protect your network infrastructure to minimise the likelihood of falling prey to this kind of attack. Visit your chosen internet services provider to discover what measures they offer.
Conclusion
Staying up to **** with the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity is highly important. With DDoS attacks seemingly on the rise, it is essential to be aware of what they are and how you can prevent them from happening to you and your company.
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