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Security Architecture

MIS 5214 - Section 001 - David Lanter

Security Architecture

MIS 5214.001 ■ Spring 2024 ■ David Lanter
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An Introduction to DDoS Distributed Denial of Service Attack

February 7, 2024 by David Lanter 15 Comments

Filed Under: 05 - Secure Networks Tagged With:

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Comments

  1. Ooreofeoluwa Koyejo says

    February 10, 2024 at 8:13 pm

    DDoS is a network attack aimed at disrupting the availability of network service to legitimate users by the use of excessive attack packets that exhaust the network resources. There are legitimate network disruptions that are not denial of service attacks although both result in network service disruptions.
    The difference between a DDoS and a DoS attack is in the mode of operation; DDoS uses compromised host devices with malware installed aka bots to launch a coordinated attack against a victim, and the identity of the attacker is hidden under the layers of bots and the wide resources in the bot network enables the success of the attack by flooding the victim’s network resources thereby, overwhelming and causing a service disruption.

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    • Celinemary Turner says

      February 12, 2024 at 7:25 pm

      This highlights how the wide resources in the botnet enable the success of the DDoS attack. By leveraging a large number of compromised devices.

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  2. Yannick Rugamba says

    February 11, 2024 at 1:56 pm

    There are two main types of DDoS attacks: network attacks that consume available bandwidth to choke connectivity, and application attacks that overwhelm server resources like CPU and memory. Defending against DDoS requires identifying attack traffic patterns while still allowing legitimate users access.

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    • Bo Wang says

      February 13, 2024 at 8:48 pm

      I once played a game where the company faced a DDOS attack, and they had no good way to deal with it, so they bought a better server.

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  3. Bo Wang says

    February 11, 2024 at 3:58 pm

    DDOS attackers attack the victim’s server with a large number of zombie computers, because the attacker’s IP address is uncertain, which causes the attacker to continue the attack posture even if some attack zombie computers are identified and blocked.

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    • Jon Stillwagon says

      February 13, 2024 at 4:19 pm

      Bo, the way that they can identify the DDoS attack is by using algorithms and even comparison with live traffic to help identify the attacker. Doing this can mitigate risks from the companies system and help keep the companies information safe.

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  4. Eyup Aslanbay says

    February 11, 2024 at 6:41 pm

    The article explains DDoS attacks, where attacker-controlled zombie computers flood servers, making detection and mitigation challenging. Factors complicating detection include unpredictability of user computers, difficulty in tracing attackers, the absence of a consistent IP address list used by zombies, and the subtlety of attacks with more requests from fewer devices.

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    • Yannick Rugamba says

      February 13, 2024 at 11:31 am

      Attack traffic can disguise itself as normal, recruit new zombies to evade blocking, and leverage subtle request patterns for maximum damage. Defenders face an inherently tough task in reliably sniffing out distributed denial-of-service assaults before victims suffer material impact. Offenders persistently innovate to skirt evolving safeguards.

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    • Edge Kroll says

      February 13, 2024 at 11:42 pm

      The unpredictability of user computers adds an additional layer of complexity, as these devices may unknowingly become part of a botnet, contributing to the overall scale of the attack. Moreover, the absence of a consistent IP address list used by zombies further complicates the task of identifying and blocking malicious traffic.

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  5. Celinemary Turner says

    February 11, 2024 at 7:59 pm

    A denial-of-service (DoS) attack makes a server or network unavailable to serve legitimate users by flooding it with packets. I learned from the article the main types of Denial Of Service attacks and how they are mitigated. Previously known DoS attacks (Juno, etc.) TCP, UDP, and ICMP flooding were created. To prevent such attacks, the IPS vendors sample the traffic flowing through the device and limit traffic recognized as DoS attacks using pre-defined filters and packet filtering. Unknown DoS flooding attacks are a bit tougher, but the IPS systems first learn the network traffic baselines according to the different types of traffic like TCP, UDP, ICMP, IGMP, etc. Then, it detects attacks/traffic anomalies by comparing them to learned baselines. SYN floods. In this attack, the attacker sends many “Please start a connection with me” packets; suppose no follow-up packets and many request packets are coming in. In that case, the server resources are exhausted, and it cannot allocate resources for real traffic coming in. Connection limit attacks. Connection flood attacks happen when an acknowledgment packet is sent to the server to complete a three-way handshake (that completes the setting up of the connection). Still, no more packets are sent to the server, causing unused connections. However, I learned that the perpetrators don’t launch attacks on enterprise networks directly. Still, they plant malicious code in many individual/group computer users (without their knowledge) that act as zombies. They take control of the computers through botnets to launch DoS attacks simultaneously from many sources.

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  6. Edge Kroll says

    February 11, 2024 at 8:46 pm

    A key point I got from the article is the effectiveness of honeypots in countering DDoS attacks. Employing a honeypot prevents attackers from reaching significant areas within the network, facilitating easier monitoring of their activities. This approach enables the observation of attacker behavior, the identification of potential return attempts, and the tracking of diverse attacks from different sources. Not only does a honeypot take a hacker’s attention away from real targets it also aids in the identification of network vulnerabilities and recognition of different attack patterns.

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    • Celinemary Turner says

      February 12, 2024 at 7:08 pm

      By analyzing the interactions between attackers and honeypots, security teams can uncover weaknesses in their network infrastructure and implement remediation measures to strengthen their defenses.

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  7. Jon Stillwagon says

    February 11, 2024 at 10:56 pm

    The article is about DDos attacks and what you can do as a company or ways to defend from these attacks. It even breaks it down from what is a DDos attack and how it works when someone tries to use it. The way to defend against a denial-of-service attack you can use statistical patterns of those DDos attacks to compare them with the live traffic. This can help detect the attacks early on before they get any worse. It can pose as a filtering system to help mitigate the risks for DDos attacks.

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    • Celinemary Turner says

      February 12, 2024 at 7:13 pm

      By analyzing the characteristics and patterns of DDoS traffic, organizations can develop algorithms and systems to distinguish between normal and malicious traffic.

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    • Eyup Aslanbay says

      February 13, 2024 at 11:18 pm

      You outline strategies for defending against DDoS attacks, explaining their mechanics and suggesting the use of statistical analysis to identify and mitigate attacks by comparing patterns with live traffic.

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  • 01 – Introduction (1)
  • 01 – Threat Environment (3)
  • 02 – System Security Plan (6)
  • 03 – Planning and Policy (7)
  • 04 – Cryptography (4)
  • 05 – Secure Networks (7)
  • 06 – Firewalls (5)
  • 08 – Access Control (7)
  • 09 – Host Hardening (5)
  • 10 – Application Security (6)
  • 11 – Data Protection (4)
  • 12 – Incident and Disaster Response (5)

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