DDoSing in games – Part two

Continuing to look at DDoSing in games, TeamSpeak is a place where a lot of attacks take place a lot of the time. They are very common as people use them to communicate their game plans or co-ordinate attacks.  To stop these DDoS attacks on your TeamSpeak server however there are two things that you can do. Namely, keep the IP of the server secret.  If they don’t know the IP, how are they doing to know to attack your server? Another way is having multiple servers open. By doing this, if your server were to go down to an attack, it is a simple matter of just switching the tabs to resume communication.

With more and more clans having their own website or forum area, it is an increasing target for people looking to gain IP’s for the purposes of DDoSing at a later date in time. How do they do that do you ask? Well, there are two ways. One is that they could hack a staff member’s account/website and gain all the IP’s they want that way. The other way is by means of what is called a “Scraper image” which basically is an image which you may not even see that will record the IP addresses of people that load it. Determined people will get your IP, one way or another. So, how can you personally mitigate against these attacks? Quite simply really. Find your modem and disconnect the power cable for 30 seconds and then reconnect it. This should change your IP (If you have a dynamic IP). If you have a static IP and want a dynamic one, you should ask your ISP.

DDoSing in Games

If you play online games nowadays you will know that more and more people are using illegal tactics to throw the game in their favor. Take the worlds biggest MMORPG game for example, Runescape. Clans and player killing make up the larger part of its player base but many people will use DDOSing tools to take down or disrupt their enemies so that they can win.

So, what is a DDOS attack? Well for starters, it is not always a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack that you are having; it could always be a DoS attack (Denial of Service). The differences between the two are the fact that DDoSing is done by a network of controlled computers whilst DoS is generally only one person doing the attack. With a DoS attack, you are able to track your attacker in most cases whilst with DDoS attacks it is next to impossible due the amount of computers involved in the attack, on purpose or otherwise. So, just how do these attacks work?

To put it simply, it happens when a computer communicates with a server. As with a normal conversation, said server will then send information back to the computer. If a server is forced to do this a lot and very rapidly, very often the server will slow or stop working. The main culprit of this is TeamSpeak, which is a way for clans or players to communicate and obviously, if you take down that server you are ending their communication. Which is very handy!

DDoS main defence

Welcome back, if you’ve read the last entry you should at least have a minor understanding of what a DDoS attack is. You may also be aware that most DDoS attacks come from the power of other people’s computers. So naturally, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure that such users are protected in the first place, which could, in some part protect you from such attacks.

So, just how do you help the people who may fall prey to infections? Well, the obvious thing is that you have to teach them, teach them about internet security, how they can spot ‘dodgy’ items on the internet and most of all, how to protect their systems should anything get through. Now, in the Internet age, passing knowledge to people who need it is much easier than it was before. With just a blog post, a website or even an advert you can get your message across to the people that you want to target.

Now, in protecting your own computer there is a wealth of options available to people to help protect against the threat of viruses and DDoS agents. Obviously, the big one is have anti-virus software, although a good firewall will help as well. (Stop or restrict a hacker gaining access to your system to plant a virus).

The next big thing would have to be knowledge of what is good and bad whilst on the Internet. E-safety in other words! People should be aware of what they are downloading, the emails they are opening and even the sites they visit. Some sites nowadays can download a virus onto your system just by you visiting their page. Scary right?

Hackers will use all sorts of ways to get their client onto your system for a variety of purposes. In the case of DDoS’ing, you will be a part of their attack, either unknowingly or knowingly. People need to know the signs to look out for and how to stay safe online

By knowing this, you are helping yourself and others from being an unwitting accomplice in a crime. That’s all for now, keep an eye out for our next article!

DDos – Information

A DdoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack differs from that of a DoS (Denial of Service). A DdoS is a co-ordinated, systematic attack on the availability of different website services on a specified organization whilst a DoS is an attack which is used to prevent people from accessing a website.

Most DDoS attacks stem from infected computers which are most likely compromised by the person who wants to launch the attack itself. They will manifest their attack by infecting your computer with viruses and then they will unwittingly use your computing power to launch the attack, along with every other computer that has been infected. Because of this, they are able to use a lot more power with which will help their attack, especially against a large organization. With more people, comes a more disruptive attack. You may well remember that in 2011, Anonymous launched an information war within which they used DDoS attack to take down large websites such as Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the like. You may realize that these are large corporations and as such, such attacks shouldn’t bother their net infrastructure in the slightest. By using the power of thousands upon thousands of people’s computers, they can launch attacks which are more disruptive than the usual attack.

By utilizing the power of thousands of peoples PC’s; they are remaining more and more anonymous. Obviously. DDoS’ing is an illegal act, so by using other people’s computers it will be harder for law enforcement agencies to track you down. The history of DDoS’ing though started way back in 2000, a long time ago now but it was a day in February when Yahoo, the search engine was attacked which ensured that the giant was taken offline for 2 hours. Which, back in those days probably wasn’t the worst thing in the world but imagine that happening now. If Yahoo went offline due to a DDoS attack, customers would be angry, advertisement revenue would be lost and most of all, the company’s reputation would be diminished. In all, DDoS attacks do hurt companies where it hurts the most. Their web presence. In the next installment, we will talk about one of the best ways to prevent DDoS attacks, protecting the people whose computer may be infected.

Testing your website using Loic

When creating a website some people do not realise how easy it is for you to get targeted. Competition can be bad and they can use illegal methods to attack your website. There is a way to stop simple attacks using simple tools since not everyone owns massive botnets. The most common attack would be using LOIC. LOIC is a program you download to “DOS” websites. It floods your website with certain packets. I think one of the best ways to prevent this is to download LOIC your self and use it as a stress tester on your website. If your website goes down from such an attack it means it has a pretty high vulnrability to most DDOS attacks.

When getting such attacks it is always good to learn how to protect your website and that is what I will be covering in next weeks post. Bookmark us if you want to find out various methods of stopping these attacks and check back next week.

LOIC Download:

Only use this to test your website. Attacking other websites is Illegal and should not be done.

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