A DoS attack aims to overload your network’s underlying systems. It can be caused by a cyber attacker who wants to prank your organization or by disgruntled employees who want revenge.
A DDOS attack uses multiple compromised systems, known as bots, to work together and flood your network with illegitimate traffic. It can be more challenging to detect than a DoS attack because it comes from multiple locations and lasts for days or weeks.
Impact Scale
A denial of service assault, sometimes known as a DoS, prohibits authorised users from using computers and other electronic devices. By overloading the targeted server with more Transmission Control Protocol/User Datagram Protocol (TCP/UDP) packets than it can handle, hackers are able to make it sluggish or even crash.
A successful DoS attack can disrupt an entire website or online service. It prevents the site or service from providing its normal functions to its legitimate users, resulting in significant costs and disruptions for the victim organization.
In a DoS attack, hackers use one computer and Internet connection to flood a target system with so much traffic that it becomes unresponsive. However, in a DDOS attack, hackers use multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted system with much more traffic.
DDoS attacks are far more dangerous than DoS attacks because they are typically more challenging to detect and mitigate. It is because DDoS attacks often originate from many different locations, making it hard to pinpoint the source of the attack.
In addition, DDoS attacks often rely on bot computers which can be easily compromised through inherent security vulnerabilities to help with the attack. These malicious computer programs can transmit much higher volumes of data than human users, and they can do so more quickly. As a result, DOS vs DDOS attacks are increasingly targeting primary online services and can impact businesses of all sizes.
Motivation
Many hackers have nefarious motives for taking enterprises offline. These attacks can deprive customers of service and put businesses under financial pressure. Hackers may also use these attacks to distract security teams while they attempt to infiltrate a company’s network in search of data theft opportunities.
A DoS attack occurs when a malicious system floods a website with so much data that it becomes inaccessible to the legitimate user. Examples of DoS attacks include buffer overflow attacks (in which the attacker overflows the target with data packets until it stops working), ICMP flood attacks (or ‘ping of death’ attacks in which hackers spoof incoming connection requests), and SYN flood attacks that send connection request packets to a server but don’t complete the required handshake.
Those behind DoS attacks are often motivated by a desire to create bad publicity for an organization with a grievance, whether it be ideological (such as animal testing or politics), personal (disgruntled ex-staff), or some other reason. DoS attacks are usually short-lived, though a particularly motivated attacker could persevere with the attack for more extended periods.
On the other hand, a DDoS attack is riskier for a number of reasons. The term “distributed” alludes to the fact that a DDoS assault originates from numerous systems as opposed to just one, making it more challenging for cybersecurity teams to pinpoint an attack’s source. These attacks can be made more challenging by hackers who use botnets, which are networks of compromised machines.
Scalability
As the name suggests, a DOS attack deprives legitimate users of a service. It does this by flooding the target with transmission control protocol (TCP) or user datagram protocol (UDP) packets meant to occupy the server’s resources, leaving no room for valid requests. It renders the system unresponsive and disrupts any activity, including business transactions.
It is what makes DOS events so damaging for businesses. They affect customer satisfaction and brand image, not to mention the revenue that could be lost during downtime. In addition, employees may need more work to perform their jobs properly.
Many factors, such as congestion or misconfigured networks, can cause a DOS event. For example, a ‘ping of death’ attack uses misconfigured internet-connected devices to send illegitimate ICMP messages that are sent to every computer in the network.
On the other hand, a DDOS attack is more sophisticated because it uses multiple computers and internet connections to flood a target system with illegitimate traffic. It makes it difficult for security products to detect and stop the threat. In addition, attackers can use botnets to deploy a DDOS attack at an astronomical scale that is nearly impossible for the victim to manage. It makes it even more critical for companies to implement robust defense mechanisms.
Control
DoS attacks are designed to overload the target with illegitimate traffic, thus taking it offline. These attacks can affect any system, from high-profile websites to the cyber-physical systems that support critical processes.
DoS attacks can be unintentional or intentional. For instance, if a website becomes extremely popular overnight, it may receive more traffic than its capacity, leading to the site being crushed by a flood of users. It is an example of an unintentional DoS attack.
There are many kinds of DoS attacks, the most common being buffer overflow, and SYN flood attacks. Buffer overflow attacks flood the network with connection requests that cannot be processed, while SYN floods send off connections to a server but fail to complete the handshake process.
A DDoS attack is more complicated to control because it uses multiple infected hosts (zombies or bots) coordinated via a central command and control server. It makes tracing the attack’s origin much more complex, which increases the risk of the attack continuing. However, cybersecurity teams can prevent DDoS attacks through preemptive measures such as network monitoring. It can identify and block malicious traffic before it has the chance to take an organization offline. It can also help businesses identify a DDoS attack and develop a response plan to mitigate its impact.