The Meaning of DDOS: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know the meaning of DDOS? This guide will give you all of the information you need on the acronym DDOS, like its definition, usage, and more!

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What Does DDOS Stand For?

DDOS stands for distributed denial of service. This refers to a type of network attack in which a hacker attempts to exhaust the resources available to a network, application, or service so that genuine users cannot gain access. 

Cybercriminals use high-volume attacks on network security infrastructure like firewalls and IPs to execute DDOS attacks. These have grown in popularity since 2010 with the rise of Hacktivism.

DDOS attacks work by targeting different aspects of a network. Hackers and malware are programmed in a very smart way that can specifically target the area of a network or system that is the weakest. 

While it can seem scary that a system is vulnerable to attack, there are also numerous types of DDOS protection services that networks can provide to their customers. Many cyber security experts know how to set up a secure system that is difficult to hack into with something like a distributed denial of service attack.

What Are the Different Types of DDOS Attacks?

There are a few different types of distributed denial of service attacks. These can vary between volumetric attacks, TCP state-exhaustion attacks, and application-layer attacks. These types of attackers have multiple types of protocols that exploit flaws and vulnerabilities in system defenses.

Volumetric DDOS Attack

In a volumetric DDOS attack, a hacker attempts to take up the bandwidth between the target network and the rest of the internet or internally inside the network. These attacks attempt to cause congestion and floods to prevent genuine users from gaining access. 

The amplification of false users has different types of protocols, including UDP flood, SYN flood, NTP amplification, smurf attacks, Fraggle attacks, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) floods, and DNS amplification attacks.

TCP State-Exhaustion DDOS Attack

Second, there are TCP state-exhaustion DDOS attacks. These work by consuming what is known as connection state tables. Many different network infrastructure components like firewalls, load-balancers, and application servers use connection state tables. These types of DDOS target the connection tables because this can be a tactic for taking down high-capacity devices.

Application-Layer DDOS Attack

Finally, there are what are known as application layer DDOS attacks. These can be the most dangerous and most effective kinds of attack. These attacks target an application or service at a specific layer — layer 7 in the OSI model — and attack the machine while generating a low traffic rate, making them difficult to detect and mitigate. This attack can be prevented by a Web Application Firewall (WAF). 

Hackers can also target layers 3 and 4 in a protocol attack called a transmission control protocol (TCP) handshake attack. The targeted servers attempt to respond to the connection requests, but the three-way handshake is never completed. These attacks include HTTP floods of HTTP requests, slow attacks (e.g., Slowloris or RUDY), and DNS query floods.

Hackers and cybercriminals can easily blend these different types of attaches — volumetric, state-exhaustion, and application-layer — to create a difficult-to-detect but extremely effective attack on different web pages. This even happened to Amazon Web Services in February 2020.

What Is the Danger of DDOS Attacks?

DDOS attacks are very dangerous and can threaten web-based businesses and services. If a DDOS attack takes down a website, the business cannot sell their products or services. This could be extremely dangerous for retailers, financial services, and gaming companies with an obvious need for income.

Not only can these types of attacks target the customer-facing side of the business, but they can also target internal business operations like email, salesforce automation, CRM, and more.  If these types of services are taken down, it can be dangerous for any type of company, including manufacturing, pharma, healthcare, and many others. 

Not only can DDOS cause problems for internet traffic or network traffic on different web pages, but it can also affect internal systems. You can integrate different types of DDOS protection with a content delivery network to protect your business against protocol attacks.

What Are Other Meanings of DDOS?

The Free Dictionary states that DDOS also has a couple of other different meanings. If you are not working in cybersecurity or discussing systems like this, DDOS likely stands for something else. 

Acronyms often have more than one potential meaning. This is why it is important to consider context when using or deciphering the meaning of an acronym. Make sure that you ask someone what their intended meaning of an acronym is if you are unsure:

  •  Dorking Dramatic and Operatic Society (UK)
  •  Dog Days of Summer
  •  Decision Disk Operating System
  •  Dispositions D’ordre Social (French: Provisions of Social Order)

Conclusion

Overall, the abbreviation DDOS stands for distributed denial of service attack. This type of malware targets the network resources of available bandwidth such as web servers, domains, IP addresses, and more to prevent legitimate users from accessing the website. 

Once normal traffic is blocked, these attacks can be dangerous for information security. Many DDOS mitigation services can prevent a malicious attempt at something like an SYN flood attack.

Sources:

  1. DDOSD | Homeland Security 
  2. DDOS – What does DDOS stand for? | The Free Dictionary 
  3. What Happens During a DDoS Attack | UAB Online DegreesÂ