DDoS Attacks Threaten Our Online World!

The media is constantly drawing our attention to the factor that cybercrime is increasing dramatically. Cybercrime isn't the only thing that is increasing dramatically. Unfortunately the methodologies used to commit these crimes are also increasing at alarming rates. Websites with high profiles as well as many web sites in general, are becoming the targets of big DDoS attacks. DDos attacks stands for distributed denial of service attacks. These DDOS attacks literally include the involvement of breaking into many computers all across the Internet. This is the perfect method of attack needed for attacking big popular sites which are capable of handling large quantities of traffic. DDoS attacks threaten to cause extreme harm to our online world that is currently in existence.

Wikipedia describes DDoS Attacks as: "A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely."

It is extremely alarming to know that the goal of a DDoS attack is to literally take over and flood the entire network as well as the resources of the server. The end result is that the users of a specific site or specific online service are denied access. DDoS attacks are very powerful and can cause a great deal of harm; this is of course all dependent on various factors such as the type of attack and how big the attack is. It can be said that DDoS attacks are actually easier to pull off than gaining administrative access to a targeted system. Due to this particular reason, DDoS attacks are actually extremely common on the Internet today.

It is very concerning to know that DDos attacks actually take full advantage of the way a system is meant to respond to various stimulus and specifically exploit systemic weaknesses. These attacks are very hard to prevent and this factor is problem producing. One of the major problems for everyone pertaining to DDoS attacks is that it does not require major advanced skills to pull off an attack. It sometimes is harder to prevent or defend against a DDoS attack than it is to actually commit one. It is terrifying to acknowledge that sometimes the hidden people behind a semi big DDoS attack is none other than young script kiddies.

DDoS attacks can cause extreme harm to companies who have websites. It is not only extremely expensive in terms of all the downtime but is also costly with regards to bandwidth usage. The potential losses that can be suffered due to DDoS attacks are astronomical. It is in everyone's best interest to learn as much as you can about computer security and to acknowledge the harm that a DDoS attack can actually cause. It may be a good idea to keep yourself updated with regard to computer security news and to be aware of all the devastating risks that exist in our online world. It can thus be quoted in conclusion: "The intent of the individuals who created the DDoS attacks has nothing to do with hacking, and they are vandals, not hackers." -Kevin Mitnick