20 years of DDoS attacks
In July 1999, a set of computers infected with the Trin00 malware attacked and took down the network of the University of Minnesota. The episode marked the first recorded case of a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
20 years later, DDoS has evolved into one of the most serious security threats from the arsenal of both cybercrime gangs and nation-state actors.
What is DDoS? or Denial of service attack define
As the name implies, the goal of DDoS attacks is to prevent the target website from providing service to its users by flooding its servers with bogus traffic and starving its resources.
Before engaging in DDoS, attackers typically assemble a “botnet”. Botnets are sets of computers compromised with a malware that enables the attacker, the “bot master,” to send them remote commands. After assembling their army of zombie devices, bot masters can launch DDoS attacks by commanding their botnet to simultaneously send fake requests to the target.
With a strong enough botnet, an attacker can overwhelm the targeted server and cause it to crash, preventing it from responding to requests from legitimate users.
Threat evolution
Since the attack against the University of Minnesota, DDoS assaults by criminals have accounted for massive financial losses and damage to the reputation of targeted organizations.
In the past year alone, web hosting and content delivery giant Akamai recorded hundreds of DDoS attacks per week. A recent report by cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky Labs also found an 84% increase in the number of DDoS attacks in the first quarter of 2019, The Daily Swig reported.
Aside from frequency, DDoS attacks have grown in size and extent of damage that they can cause.
20 years later, DDoS has evolved into one of the most serious security threats from the arsenal of both cybercrime gangs and nation-state actors.
What is DDoS? or Denial of service attack define
As the name implies, the goal of DDoS attacks is to prevent the target website from providing service to its users by flooding its servers with bogus traffic and starving its resources.
Before engaging in DDoS, attackers typically assemble a “botnet”. Botnets are sets of computers compromised with a malware that enables the attacker, the “bot master,” to send them remote commands. After assembling their army of zombie devices, bot masters can launch DDoS attacks by commanding their botnet to simultaneously send fake requests to the target.
With a strong enough botnet, an attacker can overwhelm the targeted server and cause it to crash, preventing it from responding to requests from legitimate users.
Threat evolution
Since the attack against the University of Minnesota, DDoS assaults by criminals have accounted for massive financial losses and damage to the reputation of targeted organizations.
In the past year alone, web hosting and content delivery giant Akamai recorded hundreds of DDoS attacks per week. A recent report by cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky Labs also found an 84% increase in the number of DDoS attacks in the first quarter of 2019, The Daily Swig reported.
Aside from frequency, DDoS attacks have grown in size and extent of damage that they can cause.
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