DDoS Attacks: What Are They and How To Prevent Them

DDoS attacks are becoming more common, especially for high-profile targets, and they’re getting more powerful.

DDoS stands for distributed denial of service. It’s a type of attack that takes down a website by flooding it with traffic from multiple sources. In order to succeed at bringing down a site, DDoS attackers need to get their malicious code onto as many devices as possible so that they can direct the flood of data at their target.

What is DDoS?

DDoS attacks can take many forms. They often use botnets — networks of infected computers — to send malicious traffic to a victim’s website or server in an attempt to overwhelm it with data requests until it crashes under the load. Sometimes attackers will try to overload the victim’s bandwidth by sending massive amounts of data at once (a technique called bandwidth saturation), while other times they’ll just flood their target with more requests than it can handle (a technique called request flooding). Either way, the end result is the same: The victim’s website is overloaded with requests until it goes offline or becomes unusable.

Why are companies targeted by DDoS attacks?

There are several reasons why cybercriminals target companies with DoS attacks, including:

1. To extort money from the company they’re targeting.
2. To steal sensitive information from their database and use it maliciously.
3. To force their way into the company’s network and gain access to its files and data, which they can later sell on the Dark Web for profit.

What can be done to prevent DoS attacks?

The best way to prevent DDoS attacks is to make sure that all of your systems are up-to-date and protected from known vulnerabilities. This can be done through proper network monitoring and maintenance, as well as by having strong security protocols in place at all times. Getting a good cyber insurance policy can help you put practices in place to more effectively monitor your network systems.

There is no doubt that DDoS attacks will remain a threat to businesses for the foreseeable future, but with proper precautions taken, organizations can effectively prevent themselves from being caught up in the chaos. Businesses and other organizations need to stay up to date on the latest trends in cybercrime and identify ways to protect their IT infrastructure by evaluating their network security.