An attack, often orchestrated by a botnet, which targets websites or computer servers with floods of requests, in order to overwhelm the targeted system and drive it offline; Denial of service (DoS) attacks may be initiated from a single machine, but they typically use many computers to carry out an attack. Since most servers have firewalls and other security software installed, it is easy to lock out individual systems. Therefore, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are often used to coordinate multiple systems in a simultaneous attack. A distributed denial of service attack tells all coordinated systems to send a stream of requests to a specific server at the same time. These requests may be a simple ping or a more complex series of packets. If the server cannot respond to the large number of simultaneous requests, incoming requests will eventually become queued. This backlog of requests may result in a slow response time or a no response at all. When the server is unable to respond to legitimate requests, the denial of service attack has succeeded. DoS attacks are a common method hackers use to attack websites. Since flooding a server with requests does not require any authentication, even a highly secured server is vulnerable. However, a single system is typically not capable of carrying out a successful DoS attack. Therefore, a hacker may create a botnet to control multiple computers at once. A botnet can be used to carry out a DDoS attack, which is far more effective than an attack from a single computer.
Published in Chapter:
Defending Information Networks in Cyberspace: Some Notes on Security Needs
Alberto Carneiro (Universidade Europeia, Portugal & Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2015
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6324-4.ch020
Abstract
This chapter addresses some concerns and highlights some of the major problems affecting cyberspace. This chapter focuses on defensive attitudes and concerns pertaining to the cybersecurity issues. Section 1, “Facing Cyberspace Security,” opens the area of threats and the need of defensive attitudes. Section 2, “Remembering Internet Issues,” deals with known Internet problems in what concerns cybersecurity as a generic term. In –Section 3, “Defensive Cybersecurity,” the focus is on the need to add more defensive features to security policies. Section 4, “In Search of Better Solutions,” emphasizes the need to invest continuously in scientific research and the creation of more sophisticated processes in order to prevent new forms of attack and mitigate negative results.