The network is down

--Originally published at Don't Trust Humans, Trust Computers

Do you remember you life before the internet? where you had to go outside to socialize with people, and laugh to your uncle’s bad jokes instead of memes. Yeah a pretty scary scenario that is in the past. Luckily we live in an era where the internet has become a major part of our lives, but how does the internet can reach SO many people? Well, that’s because the internet is just a HUGE network, where everybody is connected to. That network is a network that is formed out of other networks, and those other networks are formed out of OTHER networks and so on and so on. This networks are made of various components, like: computers, servers, routers, hubs, switches, cables, and other items. All this components are key elements so a network can function properly, along with the right configuration in each item that need it. So this are VERY important and need to be secure from any type of attack or incident that might happen, or else the network can have some problems. That why network security is essential.

Network-security-trends.png

As cisco states “Network security refers to any activity designed to protect the usability and integrity of your network and data. It includes both hardware and software technologies”.  Network security include many types like:

  • Access control.
  • Antivirus and antimalware software.
  • Application security.
  • Behavioral analytics.
  • Data loss prevention.
  • Firewalls.
  • Mobile device security
  • Wireless security and many more.

Networks are in constant a threat some of the most notorious threats they have are DoS. DoS stand for Denial of Service, and what it does is basically send more request than a machine can handle. The purpose of this attacks is to take down a service a server is giving. This are a very common attack a network can receive and there

Continue reading "The network is down"

Code 404! We are under attack!

--Originally published at (Not so) Random talk

Have you ever gone in to a web page you usually go into, but that day you simply can’t. You might be getting the (in)famous error: 404 page not found. But why?! You check your Internet connection, might even open other tabs and see it just fine. So it must only be happening to this one page. This annoys you, thinking the page was fine just a day or a few hours ago, and close the tab. Later you return and see you can access normally, and everything is fine. But what happened that time that you couldn’t get in? Well something at that moment probably was under an attack. A denial of Service Attack.

But what exactly is that? Should I start panicking over it? The word Attack sounds like something really bad… Well, as answer to the last question I can only say maybe, maybe not. As for the first, I’d like you to meet someone who will help me explain.

dsc_0002

This is Little Packet. Little Packet normally goes to through the web delivering your request to access a web page. It would normally go as follows:

dsc_0009

But sometimes, someone wanting to do something bad (just like in the real world imo), would send a lot of request (call them rouge packets if you want), to one server hosting a page, all at once. What this does is to prevent legitimate users, like Little Packet, from accessing information or services, like websites, emails, online accounts, etc.

dsc_0010

Another form of DoS is one you probably already know, but hadn’t paid much attention to it, or just called it annoyed. It is called spam. When a lot of spam is sent, it fulls the inbox, not letting you receive your legitimate email.

dsc_0011

There exists, let’s call it, an upgrade to

dosmap.png
Continue reading "Code 404! We are under attack!"

YOU ARE THE 1 MILLION VISITOR!

--Originally published at The shield of the world

Hello again, today the topic is something more common or at least something everyone has lived.

As a gamer I use to play PS1, PS2. And when I make the change to the MMORPG games and some others MMO Games I use to think f*ck this game when I cannot login because I was the player 109290321890431904139804123 (yep, random number) and when I grow up I actually start to looking for an answer to this kind of stuff. In that point in my life was when I meet the Denial of Service and the Distributed Denial of Service.

giphy2

So a Denial of Service(DoS) attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service. Some examples are…

  • Attempts to “flood” a network, like I said been the number 3409340934903409 to enter is a pain in the neck.
  • Attempts to disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing the access to a service. Here my example is when I used to play Dofus, Tibia and LoL. You were in a quest, hunting or just playing and the whole squad got disconnected.
  • Attempts to prevent an specific user from accessing a service. In Tibia when a player (don’t remember the name) was about to got to a really high level and was a competition between 2-3 other players, there are rumors that people actually attack that player to avoid him from entering the game.
  • Attempts to disrupt service to a specific system or person.

Sometimes a DoS attack may be part of a larger attack.

Also Illegitimate use of resources may result in a DoS. For example, an intruder that uses your anonymous ftp area as a place to store illegal copies of commercial software, consuming disk space and generating traffic.

Damage

DoS attacks

giphy3
giphy4
Continue reading "YOU ARE THE 1 MILLION VISITOR!"