Denial Of Service

Question 1

What is a DOS attack?

Answer 1

• When a website or a network is targeted with the intention of making it unavailable to user
• Designed to hold an organisation to ransom, put a competitor out of business or he politically motivated.

Question 2

What happens in a DOS attack?

Answer 2

• The attacker monopolises the bandwidth available to the server
• This results in the server ‘crashing’ in majority of cases as it can’t cope with the number of requests

Question 3

How do you know if there has been a DOS attack?

Answer 3

• a network under attack may show a slowing in performance or a total loss of access
• users can’t access the server/ websites (tickets for major events going on sale)

Question 4

What are the costs associated with a DOS attack?

Answer 4

- Revenue :
• Loss of sales due to system being down
- Repair : 
• Hardware may need to be replaced e.g. - memory, hardcore, processor
-  Labour :
• Testing
• Takes time to rebuild system
• Detecting attack

Question 5

What are the types of DOS attack?

Answer 5

• Bandwidth consumption:
  • using all bandwidth thus not allowing genuine users access
• Resource starvation:
  • an attack is able to consume a particular resource until it is exhausted