What is DDOS attack?

Today, every information we shares on the internet, are being saved somewhere in server. It is very important to keep servers alive to access those information. Some information can be share to anyone but some of them are very important for us and we can’t let anyone know. Hackers always try to get private information to do their dirty work.

But, Hacking is not just about stealing the information. When hackers do not get success in stealing , they try to down the whole server. In this case, we may lose all the information on the server if we don’t have backup or a proper defense.

Now a days, we hear about attacks on gaming networks , news websites, bank websites etc. And when i write about those attacks i mention one term that is ‘DDoS’. Many readers may already know about ‘DDoS’ attacks but many of them are still not aware and they always ask me : What is DDoS ?

So in this article, i  am going to explain everything you need to know about DDoS attacks. If you will have any question, you can ask in comment section.

Distributed denial of service (DDos) attack refers to the attempt to make online service unavailable through overwhelming it with traffic from numerous sources. DDoS attack targets a wide range of important resources including news websites, banks, and many more. They pose a challenge to people’s attempts to access or publish important information.A decade ago, DDOS was only a basic attack that trying to overwhelm connection with traffic with the aim of taking a certain web property offline. When leading web experts began fighting DDoS attack in the year 2000, the flood attacks ranged at 400 Mbps but as we speak they exceed 100 Gbps.

The attackers build a network of infected computers called botnet and spread the malicious software through websites, emails and social media. The machines are capable of being controlled remotely once infected without the knowledge of owners. These machines are then used like the army in launching an attack against the target. Some botnet are as strong as millions of machines. The floods are generated in numerous ways including sending more connection requests that exceeds what a server can handle. They can also be generated by having the computers send to the victim huge volume of random data with the intention of using up the target’s bandwidth. Some DDOS attacks are so huge that they can max out the whole country’s international cable capacity.

Specialized online marketers exist who buy and sell individual DDoS attacks or botnet. By using these marketplaces, anyone can pay some fee in order to silence websites that they disagree with or to bring to complete halt online operations of a particular organization. A week-long DDoS attack for instance that is capable of bringing a small firm offline could cost as little as $200.

Beyond the democratization of DDoS attacks are the advanced techniques and targets. Today DDoS involves a series of attacks targeting multiple devices that consist of the organization’s security infrastructure as opposed to targeting connection bandwidth only. They include various applications and firewall or IPS devices that organizations rely on such as DNS, SMTP, VOIP, HTTPS and HTTP. The latest version of DDOS attack is the common multi-vector attack that combines flood, state exhaustion and application attacks against the infrastructure devices in a sustained single attack. These attacks have gained popularity due to their effectiveness and the fact that they are hard to defend against.

Today’s new realities of DDOS attack require new approaches to defense. Network experts have been in the forefront in looking for ways to combat DDOS attack for some years now. The best defensive mechanism against the modern DDOS attack is the layered approach combining cloud based protection and on-premise. With this type of protection, you are guaranteed of 100% security for your organization against the entire spectrum of DDOS attacks. A digital attack map is also ideal for protection against a DDOS attack because it displays global DDOS activities on any particular day. It displays the attacks as dotted lines that are scaled to size and stored in line with their source and the destination countries of attack traffic when they are known.

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

10 Linux-Ubuntu like OS distros you need to know

 

If you look at the OS market, the name following Windows as Linux is the Ubuntu OS. While Windows rules the roost, Ubuntu has over the years, gone on to become the third most used OS in the world. With a tagline that says, “Linux for humans,” Ubuntu is easy to use, powerful and an apt replacement for Windows. So, naturally, developers got together and built on top of this OS, bringing new distros. It is worth taking a look at these.

 

1. Mint


The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use. Started in 2006, Linux Mint is now the 4th most widely used home operating system behind Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Canonical’s Ubuntu.

2. Kubuntu

This is an open source alternative to Windows and MS Office. Kubuntu is an operating system built by a worldwide team of expert developers. It contains all the applications you need: a web browser, an office suite, media apps, an instant messaging client and many more.

3. Edubuntu

Edubuntu is a grassroots movement that aims to get Ubuntu into schools, homes and communities and make it easy for users to install and maintain their systems. It is built by a team of hacker, students, teachers etc.

4. Xubuntu

Xubuntu is an easy-to-use operating system. It comes with Xfce, which is a stable, light and configurable desktop environment. It is perfect for those who want the most out of their desktops, laptops and netbooks with a modern look and enough features for efficient, daily usage. Moreover, it works on older hardware as well.

5. Gobuntu

Gobuntu 8.04.1 is the final release of Gobuntu. The project has merged back to mainline Ubuntu, so there is no need for a separate distribution. It tries to provide the Free Software Foundation’s four freedoms and tries to lay a platform for other free software.

6. Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio is a free and open source operative system, and an official flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is the most widely used multimedia orientated GNU/Linux distribution in the world. It comes preinstalled with a selection of the most common free multimedia applications available, and is configured for best performance for the Ubuntu Studio defined workflows: Audio, Graphics, Video, Photography and Publishing.

7. Mythbuntu

Mythbuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor focused upon setting up a standalone MythTV based PVR system. It can be used to prepare a standalone system or for integration with an existing MythTV network. Unlike similar projects, Mythbuntu keeps close ties with Ubuntu and all development is given back to Ubuntu. This architecture allows simple conversions from a standard desktop to a Mythbuntu machine and vice versa. The development cycle of Mythbuntu mirrors that of Ubuntu.

8. Ubuntu Server Edition

The Ubuntu Server Edition is a platform for scale-out computing. It helps you make the most of your infrastructure. Whether you want to deploy an OpenStack cloud, a Hadoop cluster or a 50,000-node render farm.

9. Eeebuntu

Now known as the Aurora project, this Ubuntu flavour started life originally in 2008 as the Eeebuntu project. This was a customised redistribution of Ubuntu, which was modified specifically for the Eeepc range of netbooks. What was originally a simple collection of scripts and hacks to get Ubuntu 8.04 onto an EeePC it has grown into a distribution of its own.

10. Ubuntu Mini Remix

Ubuntu Mini Remix is a fully working Ubuntu live-CD containing only the minimal set of software to make the system work. Ubuntu Mini Remix ISO image is around 200MB.