Question

Cyber attack:

1.) Does the fact that a DDoS attack has happened mean that an intrusion has also definitely happened?

2.) How common are DDoS attacks?

3.) What are some strategies for immediate response to DDoS attacks and intrusions? What are the pros and cons of each strategy?

Answer 1

1.) Does the fact that a DDoS attack has happened mean that an intrusion has also definitely happened?

• No, not exactly yes but there are chances that an intrusion can happen when a DDoS attack has happened. The main objective of the DDoS attack is the lack of availability to the service.
• But, if the target of the DDoS attack was the security services then there are chances that deactivating the security services will let the intruders go inside the services easily and manage to hack or breach into the data or whatsoever required.
• The DDoS attack itself generates a lot of logs which makes the detection of the malicious DDoS attack very harder for the institutions or organizations.
• Hence, to know whether the intrusion has happened along with the DDoS attack is a bit tough but yes, there are ways to find this out and can be looked for the flaws made during the attacks.

2.) How common are DDoS attacks?

• DDoS attacks are being launched every now and then but they cannot be called common because attackers who want something juicy from their efforts are not more bent over the DDoS attacks.
• The reason behind this is pretty rigid that there is not much to gain from DDoS attacks and hence, these attacks are being launched when the attacker needs to disrupt the services and hang up the organizations to look up for the damaged services and also take time to cope up with the services.
• When talking about the common attacks DDoS is one of the most common attacks and still the organizations are vulnerable to such attacks. From a recent study, one-third of the new businesses were hit by DDoS or DoS attacks.

Hence, this is how much common DDoS attacks are.

3.) What are some strategies for immediate response to DDoS attacks and intrusions? What are the pros and cons of each strategy?

Strategies to mitigate DDoS attacks:

1. The first and foremost technique is to include the cloud-based web servers that can handle more of the overflow and also handle a high volume of web traffic strike.
   • While using this strategy one can buy time to take a note on which services are being affected by the attack and also what were the effects. This is the advantage of this strategy.
   • If the cloud servers are also not able to handle the overflow then the backup plan will also be in ruins and then there will be no further process to stop the attack or prevent it from happening.
2. Training the staff to recognize the signs of the DDoS attack and also planning a strategy on how to mitigate the attacks because relying on firewalls won't be enough.
   • While using this strategy it can be of many advantages like it would be cost-effective, time would be spent less in recognizing the attack and we can easily buy time for closing down the services or prevention from DDoS attacks.
   • If the staff fails to recognize the attacks or if the ways of attacking changes in case DDoS this may be disadvantageous.

Hence, these are the strategies for immediate response to the DDoS attacks and the intrusions.