A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. They target a wide variety of important resources, from banks to news websites, and present a major challenge to making sure people can publish and access important information.
From a single computer, it’s difficult for attackers to generate the volume of traffic necessary to crash a network or website. To get the bandwidth or processing power needed, attackers often use botnets—armies of hundreds or thousands of Internet-connected computers (zombies or bots) that are infected with malware and under the control of the attacker (the bot master, or bot herder). In most cases, the owners of these infected computers are not even aware they’ve been compromised.
From one or more computers designated as the command and control (C&C) server, the attacker sends remote “launch” instructions to the bots. Collectively, these systems provide enough power to carry out massive attacks—far larger than those launched from a single source. And by using a botnet, attackers are able to hide their identity because the attack originates from many different systems that all appear to be legitimate.
From one or more computers designated as the command and control (C&C) server, the attacker sends remote “launch” instructions to the bots. Collectively, these systems provide enough power to carry out massive attacks—far larger than those launched from a single source. And by using a botnet, attackers are able to hide their identity because the attack originates from many different systems that all appear to be legitimate.
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