DoS Attacks vs. DDoS Attacks: What’s the Differences?

Cyber attacks have always been a nuisance regardless of anything. Anyone’s account or email getting hacked or having money swiped out of the bank account online is indeed a nuisance and a moment of concern. In fact, it worries a lot of people, and cyber security measures are quite sought after nowadays.

Businesses, brands, and organizations alike also need cybersecurity and online protection. A lot of hackers and online miscreants have attacked them with various underhanded methods. And tactics resulting in loss of business and online theft. A popular way of attacking businesses online nowadays is a DDoS attack.

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is one that hackers target. And flood systems with a lot of bogus and fake traffic. This renders systems, servers, and websites targeted inaccessible to real-time users. This raises the downtime of websites and results in a loss of business and reputation for companies.

It is anything unlike a denial of service (DoS) attack as it attacks an individual system instead of a network of interconnected devices or internet networks.

Where do DDoS attacks originate from and are they worse than a DoS attack?

DDoS attacks originate from a wide array of sources. This is why they are difficult to detect by network administrators, and they even face difficulty in eliminating the threat at their earliest. Because of large volumes of traffic simultaneously entering the system.

DDoS attacks are worse in comparison to DoS attacks. The former puts an excessive strain on available servers and online resources and can take down a complete network or website in a matter of seconds.

Let us now explore the difference between these kinds of attacks and provide worthwhile tips on the way organizational computer systems. And it can be protected from such attacks.

Briefly comparing both a DoS and a DDoS attack – the differences and similarities between both

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a criminal attack used for degrading a hosting server’s performance, and even disrupt its availability. It works by overwhelming the targeted resource with multiple requests which reduces the resource availability leading to an eventual service disruption.

How does it work? Suppose a hacker sends a flood of fake requests to an online market. The platform receives a lot of requests slowing the server down. Eventually, it stops the server.

Such attacks are used as a tool for extortion, revenge or to make a political or other kind of statement. This is why it is always important to protect computer systems against such malicious activities.

On the other hand, a DDoS attack disrupts normal operations of networks or servers. It floods either a network or a server with fake and bogus requests coming in from various sources. This cripples the network’s or server’s capacity to respond to legitimate requests.

The difference between both a DoS and a DDoS attack is that the latter involves multiple devices (known as a botnet). To launch the attack from various locations which hence masks the culprit’s identity. Companies hence find it difficult to find the culprit and stop the attack immediately.

For hackers to boost the attack’s effect, the botnets they make can even use thousands of machines in one individual attack which makes responding to such an attack a difficult task.

This is why both businesses and organizations should invest time and effort in strengthening their network security and privileges. Also, adding adequate security measures which can protect them against both DoS and DDoS attacks is a must. Apart from websites, even the dedicated server can get affected and taken down by such an attack.

Common kinds of DoS attacks – what are they?

DoS attacks are popular because they can cause a lot of destruction and hackers can easily execute them. Having knowledge of the common kinds of DoS attacks in mainstream use helps protect systems efficiently and they are as under:

● Ping floods.

● SYN flooding.

● UDP flooding.

● ICMP flooding.

● Low orbit ion cannon attacks (LOIC).

Briefly understanding the common kinds of DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks are more destructive than DoS ones as they are launched from multiple devices. SYN Flooding, HTTP Flooding, and UDP Flooding are the common kinds in use which are briefly explained as under.

• SYN Flooding

This involves overwhelming a system with unauthorized SYN requests which consume all accessible resources. The consumption of resources makes it impossible for the end user to access network services.

• HTTP Flooding

Another common form of a DDoS attack, it utilizes bots to send legitimate yet large numbers of HTTP requests in a simultaneous fashion to overwhelm the ability of a server in processing those numerous and simultaneous requests.

• UDP Flooding

This one is also a popular kind of DDoS attack. Hackers use it to inundate random ports on a remote host with fabricated UDP packets. All three vectors here have quite the potential for interrupting servers and networks and can be quite damaging once successful.

In what ways can protection against both DoS and DDoS attacks be improved?

Protecting businesses from both DoS and DDoS attacks is key in today’s digital world. There are numerous ways to help protect organizational computer systems, especially by managing ports. And only allowing trusted IP addresses as well as implementing firewall solutions that filter packets.

Also using load balancing and other relevant tools to ensure proper user authentication can protect such systems from these attacks.

All protection measures against both DoS and DDoS attacks, especially software, should be regularly updated with the latest patches available. Robust access control mechanisms also help protect systems from becoming vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. Moreover, these measures can also help protect a cheap dedicated server hosting network from these attacks nicely.

Following the best practices for system protection and conducting regular system and network audits of activities. They can help protect both businesses and companies from DoS and DDoS attacks.

Conclusion

One of the main differences between a DoS and a DDoS attack is the number of attacking devices. The former comes from an individual source while the latter involves multiple sources. If a business or an organization falls victim to such an attack (God forbid). It’ll lose revenue, business, and reputation, and can also harm employee productivity.

This is why deploying the best cyber security measures and systems should help companies protect themselves from such attacks at all costs.