Denial of service attacks are one of the most common types of cyber attacks. According to recent reports, more than half of the cyber attacks in the last year included a distributed denial of service (DDoS) element. This is likely because DDoS attacks are low-hanging fruit for attackers; they are inexpensive and easy to launch, and unfortunately, they are effective. The best way to prevent a DDoS attack is to be aware that an attacker is planning one, but that can be difficult without access to the right threat intelligence.
DDoS attacks can be especially relevant with geopolitical events. Take a look at our report: Crowdsourced DDoS Attacks Amid Geopolitical Events.
How Flare Helps your Team Detect DDoS Attacks
How can Flare help detect DDoS attacks?
The cyber threat landscaping is constantly evolving. It can be difficult for even the most conscientious security teams to know if their organization is in a potential attacker’s crosshairs, or how that criminal is planning to attack. Flare’s solution scans the clear and dark web, as well as prominent threat actor communities to monitor hacker chatter. If your proprietary information appears online, or if hackers are planning to launch a DDoS attack, you receive an alert. Flare’s alerts will help your team better understand where your data has appeared, who is planning to launch an attack, and what tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) they are likely to use.
Why use Flare as part of your DDoS attack prevention strategy?
There are an overwhelming number of threats to your organization’s systems. There’s no way your team can manually scan for every single one. By using an automated solution to scan for potential threats, your team can find and mitigate possible DDoS attacks early. It helps to monitor the forums and social media where bad actors congregate; scanning for hacker chatter lets you know if your domain, digital assets, or brand has been compromised. This proactive approach to cybersecurity empowers you to take action before further harm can be done. By using Flare, your team can stay on top of trends in risk, and know exactly when your data has been exposed, so they can immediately take action.
What do you get when you use Flare to monitor for DDoS attacks?
- Proactive cybersecurity: Continuous scanning of the clear and dark web for data leaks and potential DDoS attacks.
- Endpoint security: Monitoring for malicious activity on public-facing assets.
- Data leak prevention: Early detection of data breaches and data leaks.
- Compliance: Strengthened compliance with data privacy regulations.
- Less noise: Immediate, relevant alerts when issues are discovered
- Automated scanning and evaluation: Rather than scanning manually, your analysts are notified when a plot to launch a DDoS attack is discovered.
DDoS Attacks: An Overview
What is a DDoS attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic. DDoS attacks use botnets — networks of compromised devices, or systems to generate the attack traffic. The traffic floods the target, slowing the server, causing an outage, or otherwise disrupting the normal functions of a business.
What are the three types of DDoS attacks?
There are many different kinds of DDoS attacks, but all of them fall into three main categories:
- Volume-based attacks: These attacks, also called volumetric attacks, aim to consume the bandwidth of a target, such as a server, network, or database.
- Protocol attacks: Rather than using sheer volume to flood a target, protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network protocols to overwhelm a resource. This might be a server or a protective control, like a firewall.
- Application layer attacks: Application layer attacks target specific vulnerabilities in application processes to cause the application to fail. This can exhaust computing resources and lead to outages.
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What’s the difference between a DoS attack and a DDoS attack?
When it comes to its end goal, a denial-of-service (DoS) attack is very much the same as a DDoS attack. Its purpose is to flood a resource with traffic, causing disruption or outages. However, a DoS attack uses only one device to overwhelm a target while a DDoS uses a network of machines and resources to attack a target.
Why is it Important to Monitor for DDoS Attacks in Today’s Cybersecurity Landscape?
Why are DDoS attacks a concern right now?
Denial of Service attacks are almost as old as the Internet as we know it; DDoS attacks were a popular attack vector in the 1990s, and they continue to be the most prevalent type of cyber attack. Although it’s hard to prove that data has been stolen during or because of DDoS attacks, they’re still very serious. A DDoS attack is meant to shut down or slow down a site, server, or application, and even a DDoS attack launched by an amateur can be effective.
Why are DDoS attacks so prevalent?
Because the main goal of a DDoS attack is to overwhelm a resource and shut it down, it’s a useful attack vector for criminals who want to stop an organization from doing business as usual. DDoS attacks may be used by:
- Business rivals intent on slowing or stopping business operations
- Hacktivists trying to send a message
- Terrorists intent on sabotaging an organization
- State actors attacking another government
What is the impact of a Distributed Denial of Service attack?
Even if no data is stolen as a result of a DDoS attack, real damage can be done to your organization. This includes the cost of finding and remediating the attack, the cost of business interruptions, potential legal fees and other fines. You may also suffer reputational loss as well, particularly if your breach receives media attention.
DDoS Attacks and Flare
Flare provides the leading Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solution for organizations. Our technology constantly scans the online world, including the clear & dark web, to discover unknown events, automatically prioritize risks, and deliver actionable intelligence you can use instantly to improve security. Monitor cyber risk with Flare to catch DDoS attacks early and take action.
Flare integrates into your security program in 30 minutes and often replaces several SaaS and open source tools. Learn more by signing up for our free trial.
