Distributed denial-of-service attacks, also known as DDoS attacks, are becoming far more common over the past few months. In most cases, criminals will target companies and large enterprises, in the hopes of tricking them into paying a vast sum so the attacks will relent. However, it has become apparent regular consumers are targeted by DDoS attacks as well. It is of the utmost importance people are aware of how they can stop such an attack before major damage is done.
Anti-DDoS Attack Tricks 101
When a consumer is faced with a DDoS attack, the criminals will flood their modem or router’s external IP address with traffic requests. Any device linked to said modem or router will suffer from limited to no internet connectivity whatsoever. Addressing this problem may seem impossible, yet there are a few simple steps everyone can take.
First of all, it is important to force a refresh of your modem or router’s WAN IP address. Users and assailants can use this IP address to target specific devices. Forcing such a reset usually requires taking your entire home internet network offline from anywhere between 30 minutes to 24 hours.
Every internet service provider has different “leasing periods” for WAN IP addresses, and some will take longer to acknowledge the reset. Make sure to unplug your modem or cable box where your internet connection originates from, otherwise the process will fail. Having a “backup” internet connection, such as a secondary ISP or a mobile network, is worth considering as well.
Unfortunately, this method will only address a DDoS attack if it was activated prior to the attack. It is important computer users take precautions to avert DDoS attacks in the first place. Using a VPN or the Tor browser to remain anonymous on the Internet is a more than valid solution to avoid DDoS attacks against your home or enterprise network. DDoS Attacks are designed to target one specific IP address, but if that isn’t the one of your home network, you can just keep on using the internet without issues.
Enterprises targeted by a DDoS attack, on the other hand, have their work cut out for them. One of the first steps to take is blocking internet traffic coming from a specific country, for a while. Companies with an international clientele may find this solution harder to implement, though. Another solution is to create inbound traffic profiles, where regular connections are whitelisted and the rest are automatically blocked until further approval.
Using a third-party anti-DDoS service provider such as Cloudflare is an alternative option, although it can become quite costly. Most companies in the industry don’t charge exuberant amounts for their services, even though that doesn’t mean they are cheap either. It is important to protect against network traffic floods at all times, especially now that DDoS attacks are becoming more prevalent.
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