Types Of DoS Attacks: How They Cause Disastrous Effects?
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks have become an increasing threat to every business today. As the global digital population climbs new heights, the users around the world seek online services than any other form, and it has led to the growth of on-demand services.
But the cybersecurity threats are also contributing to making it difficult for users to access services in time. And DoS is the most used and successful attack of cybersecurity.
DoS: What Is It?
Denial of Service attack primarily focuses on disrupting the services from the servers so that no client can access them, and the service providers have to deal with multiple client complaints and unavailability issues. It becomes stronger where there is a distributed network available as the results of DDoS attacks are even worse.
There are two ways hackers can execute these attacks on the servers:
1. By bombarding a tremendous amount of traffic to the server, which slows down the processing and continuous querying leads to the unavailability of information and services
2. By crashing the server. The hacker attempts to fire too many queries at once that not only slows down the server but results in a crash if the attack continues.
There is no malicious use of traffic or server data in this attack. However, DoS can cause loss of a significant amount of time and require the service provider to invest in more money behind the damages done to servers.
Types of DoS Attacks
Based on the approach used, DoS attacks can be further divided into types that signify how a particular attack takes place on the server and produces harmful effects.
ICMP Flood Attack
In this attack, the hacker uses the trick of pinging all the devices available in the network rather than pinging anyone. And it results in servers getting loaded heavily with unnecessary information and data that slows down the services. To complete their purpose, hackers use the misconfigured devices of the network and start pinging all the devices present. That's why this attack is also called a ping of death or the smurf attack.
Buffer Overflow
Buffer overflow is another important type of DoS attack that can affect all kinds of software and applications. For instance, you have developed a gojek like app and get multiple requests from the same user that may result in damage files, corrupt data, or even reveal private information. If the code is overwritten, it may give you incorrect results and app crashes.
SYN Flood Attack
The server is attacked with requests that do not complete the handshake. The server receives the connection request, but as the handshake is not completed, the server waits for the handshake to occur that slows down the services. As this happens repetitively, it ultimately results in slower loading and service experience, which draws the users away.
Target System Vulnerabilities
There are multiple types of DoS attacks that specifically target the vulnerability of a system. These attacks occur from the sources which already have information about the server and later targets its vulnerable side to affect the services offered.
Lost Time and Money
If your website has faced a serious DDoS attack, then it will take a huge amount of time and penny to solve the same situation. If you can't find the main source for the attack, then there are great chances that you have to build the website from scratch again. Hence make sure to keep the backup of your website once a month, this can help you to restore all the things easily and simply whenever you want.
Conclusion
Distributed DoS attack remains one of the most effective attacks as it includes multiple devices firing up the traffic to the server to slow it down and make the service unavailable. However, there are numerous effective measures that developers can put in effect to save a server from getting hacked or crashed again. Using the best practices of cybersecurity, the risk of DoS can be lowered easily.
