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DoS attacks What are they, how do they work and how to keep ourselves protected from them?

The DoS attacks These are actions that are frequently performed today. Its about saturate the system so that it is inoperative and cannot offer its services.

But this is not the only thing a DoS cyber attack why There are different types of denial of services practiced by hackers. If you want to know what they are, you will have to continue reading this article because we will explain what this practice consists of.

Further, you will find information about how to know if you are the victim of an attack and what are the best tips that you should take into account to avoid an advance of these.

What is a DoS cyber attack and what is its main intention on our teams?

It is considered as cyber attack to any action or maneuver that is carried out intentionally to destabilize the computer system of a private network, a computer or a server. This is done to gain control, steal information, and deny access to legitimate users.. In this way, security is violated and profits from all personal information, private and financial data obtained from hostings or any other attacked device.

Types of DoS Attack What are all there?

There are different types of DoS attack running today. They all aim produce economic damage to the owners of the platform and it is usually done through the loss of connection between the users and the hosting.

Among the most common types of denial-of-service attacks are:

  • Hosting depletion or saturation. This type of DoS attack is characterized by making multiple attacks on the system so that memory, bandwidth and access to the software occupy many resources and therefore become saturated and stop giving answers to users.
  • Alteration in configuration. Another of the most common attacks that exist is the modification or elimination of certain parameters that are key to accessing the system. This means that the computers are out of service and users cannot access the domains.
  • Destruction remotely. It is one of the attacks with the most negative results for its owners because intruders can access through the Internet and physically alter the components until they completely damage the equipment. This has serious consequences because the system is inoperative for a long time.
  • Interruption in data transfer. A DoS attack can also disrupt the communication between two devices, making it impossible to transmit information between them. This type of attack is also known as TCP Reset Attack.
  • Obstruction in communication. This type of DoS attack is widely used in legal matters, because the victim of the hack is prevented from communicating properly with the server.

How do we know if we are victims of a DoS attack? More obvious symptoms

How do we know if we are victims of a DoS attack?  More obvious symptoms

While is true that there are many tools to defend against DoS-type attacks, the problem is that many times the user does not know that he is being attacked by this type of aggression.

Therefore, it is convenient to protect your network and your computer with more elements when you have some of these symptoms:

  • The website it remains inactive for no specific reasons and as time passes that period of inactivity increases.
  • Every time you have more dissatisfied users due to the denial of service as they cannot enter the website easily.
  • When there are a large number of dummy or useless requests that generate quite a significant overload in the system and saturate its resources.
  • If changes are found in the configuration of vital parameters for user access to the system.

Tips to avoid falling victim to a denial of service attack

Denial of service attacks are becoming more and more common, so you will have to be careful and keep these tips in mind:

Hire a prestigious server

Try to choose a hosting for your website that has good reputation and ability to tolerate a large traffic flow. In addition, you must have 24/7 support to help you solve problems that are external to your website. You do not have to forget that the hosting must have its own network protection and intrusion detection measures, they are called IDS / IPS systems.

Control the flow of traffic

You should keep in mind that this task will have to be done frequently to know what the bandwidth is sufficient to handle the traffic spikes. If you notice that the visit curve has gone up, you should pay attention because you may be being attacked.

Frequently analyze visitor activity

One of the easiest ways to detect a DoS attack is when dramatically increases empty requests or the number of forms are completed automatically.

Incorporate a load balance

It will be necessary to use redundancy which consists of duplicate your content on more than one server and in this way reduce the risks of inoperability. That is, every time a hosting is attacked you can use another to continue providing services to users in a normal way.

Incorporates firewalls in the cloud

A very practical solution is include a firewall cloud application, also called Web Application Firewall (WAF). These elements act as intermediaries between the server and the users and therefore they manage to anticipate cyber attacks and automated programs.

Constantly update all your systems

The best practice you can do to avoid DoS attacks is update all the programs you have to provide a good web service to your users. With this, you will be able to make web content managers and hostings stronger when it comes to being attacked.