Internet Security Solutions Against DDoS Attacks

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack involves the use of one computer and an Internet connection to make a service unavailable to a targeted resource or system. On the other hand, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack can be defined as a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack wherein many compromised systems (often infected with a Trojan) are made use of to target the Internet security of one system so that an online service becomes unavailable to it. Both the targeted system and all of the systems maliciously deployed and controlled by the hacker become victims of a DDoS attack.

Internet Security – How Does a DDoS Attack Work
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When a DDoS attack occurs, an online service becomes unavailable to a system because the incoming traffic from multiple sources overwhelms the victim. As a result, blocking of an IP address alone may not be enough to contain an attack. Moreover, it is often very difficult to differentiate between legitimate user traffic and attack traffic, especially when it is spread across many points of origin.

Perpetrators of DDoS attacks target sites as well as services that are hosted on high-profile servers such as that of banks, news websites, credit card payment gateways, etc.

Internet Security – Types of DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks are of different types. They commonly include the following:

Traffic attacks

In these attacks, huge volumes of TCP, ICPM and UDP packets are sent to the target system. This results in a loss of legitimate requests. Often malware exploitation forms part of these attacks.

Bandwidth attacks

This type of a DDoS attack involves overloading of the target system with a large amount of junk data. This leads to a loss of network bandwidth.

Application attacks

These attacks lead to a depletion of application resources layer and this in turn leads to non-availability of services to the victim.

Internet Security – DDoS Attacks Are Turning Out to be Increasingly Problematic

Internet Security Solutions Against DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly problematic as they have the ability to take a person or business offline. Hackers make use of such attacks to render sites inaccessible and as a ploy extort money from the users of target systems. Victims of a DDoS attack often suffer serious losses as it becomes difficult to process online transactions. This also results in prospective customers moving over to the victim’s competitors.

Further, the bot technology used by hackers for executing these attacks continues to improve as many of them have been able to overcome different forms of bot-detection techniques that have been employed.

Though the average duration of DDoS attacks have reduced, they are being used more frequently now. Hackers are adopting a hit-and-run approach to DDoS attacks (multiple short attacks are launched instead of prolonged single attacks) so that detecting and defending an attack becomes difficult.

Internet Security – How Can Businesses Protect Themselves against DDoS Attacks

In the recent times, there has been a surge in cyber-attacks and Internet security breaches. Cyber-gangs like DD4BC and Lizard Squad have been instrumental in bringing down bank, media and gaming networks through DDoS attacks. As these Internet security attacks become more complex, some of the steps that organizations can take to mitigate threats and protect assets include the following:

The black-holing or sinkholing approach involves blocking all traffic and diverting it to a black hole for discarding it. Further, the routers can be configured in order to prevent simple ping attacks. This is achieved by filtering out protocols that are not essential and blocking invalid IP addresses. Firewalls can be made use of to shut off a specific flow related to an attack.

Intrusion-detection systems that work in conjunction with firewalls have also been found to be useful in protecting businesses against DDoS attacks. Moreover, configuring server applications in a proper manner helps to minimize the effect of an attack. Further, use of DDoS mitigation appliances or redundant network devices and buying excess bandwidth can be of help in handling DDoS attacks.

All these approaches may be helpful, but are not fool-proof. Therefore, a better approach, as far as Internet security is concerned, would be to make use of a managed DNS service that is cloud based. This is because such a service is manned by dedicated experts with networks around the globe. This ensures web presence of the business and the availability of its critical web services at all times. Creating a backup also improves availability and performance of websites. For example, deploying websites at additional leased data centers or cloud services located across the globe improves the global reach of businesses.

Sexual Abuse Survivors Seek Support In Online Anonymity Forums 

Online Anonymity

In a study conducted by a research team at Drexel University, it has been found out that online anonymity provided the cover which sexual abuse survivors, particularly those belonging to the male sex, seem to be seeking. They seem to find support in the anonymity forums that exist online and tend to come up with more candid revelations and seek help more openly.

Online Anonymity for Sexual Abuse Survivors

It is a pretty well-known fact that a majority of sexual abuse stories go unreported. This is purportedly because of the social stigma that is attached with coming out in the open about having been a victim of sexual abuse. Paradoxically, it is also a fact that when victims speak out in public about the sexual abuse that they have suffered, the healing process is accelerated.

Online Anonymity for Sexual Abuse Survivors
The research paper that was presented during the 33rd annual conference held under the aegis of the Association for Computing Machinery in the section of Human Factors in Computing Systems had its main theme lined on how survivors of sexual abuse tended to open up in the online space when they were able to conceal their identities. The paper presented by Nazanin Andalibi, a Dextrel University doctoral candidate, and Andrea Forte, PhD, who works as an assistant professor in the College of Computing & Informatics, found out that these survivors were ready to ask for help under the cover of online anonymity. Another point that caught their attention was that men were more ready to disclose their ordeals, experiences, and thoughts when given a method of being able to conceal their true identities as in anonymous online forums.

Other research team members that studied as to how online anonymity encouraged sexual abuse victims to speak up were Oliver Haimson from the University of California and Munmun De Choudhury who works at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. The study included views of public posts that came up on the website Reddit from three sub-forums called subreddits. These online forums were related to abuse. The messages were from a mixed group of participants that called themselves redditors, posted over a period of 10 months in 2014. These participants created accounts with pseudonyms and accounts that could be used only once (throwaway accounts) to add to the online anonymity. The group of researchers analyzed close to 200 random posts that were secured from a group of 2000. The analysis was centered on how sexual abuse survivors sought support and the nature of variation of their disclosures depending on their origin – the throwaways or the other accounts. One of the main findings of the research was that sexual abuse survivors who were men used throwaway accounts to disclose their experiences or to seek support. The throwaway account gave them an extra layer or a mask that helped to conceal their true identities.

website Reddit from three sub-forums called subreddits
Another important finding was that Reddit was a forum that was being frequently used by sexual abuse survivors for disclosing their experiences of rape and assault for the first time because of the online anonymity that it offered for the victims. The findings of the research team showed that the stereotype male generally shied away from seeking advice or help and this ideology played a large part in discouraging help-seeking behavior. Throwaway accounts helped the affected males to overcome this hurdle to a large extent. The authors were also of the opinion that this aspect of online anonymity can contribute positively to sexual abuse survivors coming out with their first-time disclosures or even aid them to seek advice from appropriate support groups. Further, new design provisions could help the subreddit forum moderators to identify first-time disclosures and help-seekers and direct them fruitfully to appropriate resources.

Additionally, the researchers opined that fundamental needs of a sexual abuse victim such as talking about their experiences, seeking support, and coming out in the open about the feelings and thoughts that plague them are mostly unmet in the real-world scenario. This point was evident when some survivors came out in the open for the very first time in cyberspace. They observed that those victims had never shared their experiences one-on-one with anyone else before that point in time even when offline.

3 Most Popular Security Tools For Internet Anonymity

Internet anonymity has assumed a great deal of importance more than ever now because your only privacy is constantly under attack. The good news is that you can make use of Internet anonymity tools to protect your privacy and security. The aim of this article is to provide you with some information about three most popular security tools for Internet anonymity.

The Onion Router (Tor)

If Internet anonymity is what you are looking for, you need Tor, which makes use of a large network of computers in order to route the traffic to your website through several encrypted layers for obscuring the point of origin of the traffic. It is an important tool as far as whistleblowers and political dissidents are concerned. It helps them to share information anonymously. You can also use it for ensuring your Internet anonymity.

The Onion Router

All that you have to do get started is to download the Tor Browser Bundle. The Firefox’s customized branch also incorporates browser extensions to enhance privacy and connects you to the Tor network automatically. Though this package offers everything needed to successfully use Tor, you will have to change your behavior when it comes to web surfing in order to ensure Internet anonymity. You should comply with the Tor warnings because it is not a magic pill for Internet anonymity.

Tor, developed to protect the online communication of U.S. Intelligence, may substantially reduce the browsing speed as your data has to hop through a number of layers. The data transmitted across Tor may be encrypted at the relay nodes, but privacy can be compromised if the site requested for does not use SSL. Further, your online activity may be monitored as Tor is widely used by journalists, political dissidents and criminals.

VPN

The Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection enables you to browse the Internet securely as it makes you to appear as though you are from another place. This is achieved by creating an encrypted virtual tunnel from your computer to the server of the VPN provider. As a result, it appears as though you are using a specific server. As the Internet traffic is routed through this encrypted tunnel, your data will not be exposed to eavesdroppers.

VPN

If you are serious about maintaining Internet anonymity, you must consider using a VPN solution. This is because VPN, especially stealth VPN offered by some providers, disguises your traffic by hiding your real IP address from the world and making it difficult for others to decipher your traffic. VPNs are the best bet when it comes to bypassing censorship.

However, it important to choose a quality VPN provider that does not store communications logs or data. Further, the VPN provider should be one that implements server randomization and proper load balancing so that you are always connected to different VPN servers.

Proxy Sever

A proxy server can be defined as an intermediary between the Internet and your computer. The traffic that is routed through proxy servers will appear as though it is coming from the IP address of the server and not your computer. Proxy servers are not required to devote resources for the purpose of encrypting all traffic passing through them. Therefore, they can accept connections simultaneously from tens of thousands of users. Proxy servers make use of different protocols, HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS (Private), to communicate with the Internet.

Proxy Sever

HTTP and SOCKS proxies do not encrypt data. On the other hand, HTTPS proxies offer encryption to the same level as any of the SSL websites. However, proxies are not designed to provide protection to all of the Internet traffic. Typically, it protects only the browser. Further, many proxies pass on the original IP address of the user to the destination site. This makes proxy servers less suitable for security or Internet anonymity. Finally, the proxies are required to be configured separately for each of the application such as browser, email, third-party apps, etc. Moreover, some applications may not support proxies.

As such, you need to judiciously choose one or more of these tools, depending on your specific requirement, in order to maintain the required level of Internet anonymity.