Why DDoS?
Understand the motivations of attackers
Attackers have different reasons for denial of service attacks including: hacktivism, script kiddies, financial manipulation, extortion, digital warfare, and harming competition.
Hacktivism: To damage the reputation of a company or to make a political statement, hacktivists deface or block access to digital properties, conduct virtual sit-ins, and gather intelligence. One of their tactics is denial of service.
Script kiddies: To expand and demonstrate their digital prowess, young developers download free tools and develop their own. An example is an enterprising 12-year-old who targeted a /24 subnet, posted a tutorial on YouTube and coordinated a communal attack with other minors on STEAM and IRC.
Stock prices: Financial services firms have been a prominent target for economically and ideologically motivated criminals. Complex campaigns can adversely affect public perception of the targeted enterprise as well the perception of market participants (i.e., investors). The result can halt trading on an exchange or influence a company’s stock price.
Extortion: DD4BC initiated small attacks and sent ominous emails threatening a larger attack – with a payout demanded via email to prevent an attack that would take down the site. Copycats followed, often with empty threats, hoping to capitalize on the fears of their targets. More recently, memcached attacks were turned into extortion with threats embedded in the attack payloads.
State-sponsored: DDoS attacks are an inexpensive way for nations to disrupt the operations of an enemy, or for state-sponsored actors to hush free speech. Attacks launched by beteen nation-state actors could disrupt infrastructure such as hospitals and utilities.
Competitors: While business competitors may seek to interfere with the operations of a competiting business, attacks are more common among another sort of competitor: gamers. There’s a long history of gamers using denial of service attacks targeted at a fellow user to kick that player off a platform temporarily – or to take down an entire rival gaming platform.
Know More: denial of service security
Attackers have different reasons for denial of service attacks including: hacktivism, script kiddies, financial manipulation, extortion, digital warfare, and harming competition.
Hacktivism: To damage the reputation of a company or to make a political statement, hacktivists deface or block access to digital properties, conduct virtual sit-ins, and gather intelligence. One of their tactics is denial of service.
Script kiddies: To expand and demonstrate their digital prowess, young developers download free tools and develop their own. An example is an enterprising 12-year-old who targeted a /24 subnet, posted a tutorial on YouTube and coordinated a communal attack with other minors on STEAM and IRC.
Stock prices: Financial services firms have been a prominent target for economically and ideologically motivated criminals. Complex campaigns can adversely affect public perception of the targeted enterprise as well the perception of market participants (i.e., investors). The result can halt trading on an exchange or influence a company’s stock price.
Extortion: DD4BC initiated small attacks and sent ominous emails threatening a larger attack – with a payout demanded via email to prevent an attack that would take down the site. Copycats followed, often with empty threats, hoping to capitalize on the fears of their targets. More recently, memcached attacks were turned into extortion with threats embedded in the attack payloads.
State-sponsored: DDoS attacks are an inexpensive way for nations to disrupt the operations of an enemy, or for state-sponsored actors to hush free speech. Attacks launched by beteen nation-state actors could disrupt infrastructure such as hospitals and utilities.
Competitors: While business competitors may seek to interfere with the operations of a competiting business, attacks are more common among another sort of competitor: gamers. There’s a long history of gamers using denial of service attacks targeted at a fellow user to kick that player off a platform temporarily – or to take down an entire rival gaming platform.
Know More: denial of service security
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