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Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have featured heavily in the tech news of recent years as their ease of delivery makes them a simple tool for those wishing to disrupt a target's online presence. A DoS is initiated when one computer continually sends data, typically as requests, to another computer with the aim of exceeding the target machines resources such as bandwidth, RAM or processing power. A DDoS is when multiple computers join forces, typically controlled by a Botnet, and target an organisations web servers or network. The disruption from a DDoS, however, can affect different organisations in different ways. Some organisations such as banks have seen DDoS attacks prevent their customers from accessing their online banking services. This has obvious implications for consumers and businesses looking to manage their accounts. HSBC suffered a DDoS attack in October 2012 that was attributed to Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters allegedly as a protest aimed at forcing You Tube to remove the controversial film Innocence of Muslims. The same group has continued its DDoS attacks into January of 2013 against a long list of U.S. banks such as JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Bank of...

When a business experiences a DDoS attack, it places stress on the systems and people responsible for maintaining them, as well as causing damage to the business. When a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack happens, a malicious actor attempts to make an entire network go down. Website, email, voicemail, or anything accessed by the server under attack will be inaccessible to users. The ultimate goal of the attack is to make the system unavailable to the users that depend on the system. Over time, DDoS attacks have changed and intensified. As malicious actors become more sophisticated, attacks become more destructive. To understand how attacks have changed between 2011 and 2012, review the infographic below. The graphic makes some interesting comparisons: Note the increase of DDoS attacks between 2011 and 2012. Also note the increase in infrastructure DDoS attacks between 2011 and 2012. Finally, note that the average bits per second (bandwidth) and average packets per second during attacks increased in huge amounts. Click Thumbnail to Enlarge The infographic was created by the marketing and design team of one of the global leaders in DDoS protection and mitigation.