Protect yourself

How to protect against DDoS hack attacks

In late March a single attack on the Internet spam filter provider “Spamhaus” brought the Internet to its knees.

Across Europe many popular websites were inaccessible and even Australian computers suffered service disruptions (students from a well-known Sydney university were told to go home because the University’s Internet connection was flooded). This hack attack, known as a “DDoS” attack, was the largest ever recorded of its kind.

What is DDoS?

A DDoS (“Distributed Denial of Service”) attack occurs when a monstrous number of PCs all try to access the same website at the same time. The server that runs the website can’t cope with the workload and inevitably crashes. DDoS attacks are hard to stop because the attacking PCs are from all corners of the world and their owners don’t even know they are part of a co-ordinated attack. Before the strike occurs the hackers infiltrate vulnerable PCs and then, when the time is right, they simultaneously tell the PCs to access a targeted website to bring it down. Hackers regularly use DDoS attacks to hold Internet companies to ransom and they only stop the attack once the company pays.

You might be innocently involved

Scarily the Internet Industry Association suspects there are hundreds of thousands of Australian compromised computers that are part of global DDoS attacks and these numbers are rapidly increasing. Security experts think that it’s only a matter of time for a DDoS attack to be so huge it brings the entire Internet to a grinding halt.

Take precautions

As always we recommend you maintain comprehensive Internet Security and regular backups to prevent hackers from taking control of your network. After all network attacks are all too common and it’s only a matter of time before you are either targeted for attack or unknowingly recruited to attack others.