DDoS Attack Types

There is no avoiding the fact that DDoS attacks are increasing in number and size. Attack applications and tools are downloaded from the internet more easily than ever before, botnets and “hired gun” attackers are now available for hire from as little as a £130 a day (2014 pricing), with tech news pages regularly reporting on the latest organisation to be targeted.

What is a Volumetric Attack? [Layer 3/4]

These type of attacks are based, as the name suggests, on volume and causing masses of congestion to soak up your bandwidth. Using high volumes of spurious traffic, either within your network directly or between your network and the rest of the internet, applications and services are rendered useless with no available bandwidth to utilise.

What is an Application Attack? [Layer 7]

Definitely the most effective kind of attack, an Application Attack will directly target a service of application at layer 7, the end user level. Huge problems can be caused with just one dedicated attack machine, and because attackers can get away with using low traffic rates they can be difficult to detect and neutralise. Over the last couple of years this form of attack has become more and more commonplace.

What is a Blended Attack?

A Blended Attack is a mixture of the above, exploiting the best (or worst) of both weaknesses to maximise threat potential and disruption.

Please browse the activereach DDoS Dictionary to find out more about Layer 3, Layer 4 and Layer 7 DDoS attacks.