Denial-of-service attack Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Denial-of-service attack - Essay Example There are a number of network activities which people carry out in order to prevent users from working with a particular website or virtual organization effectively. Denial-of-service attacks are not a new phenomenon in the technological industry. These attacks are launched to slowdown or affect the smooth running of a particular website. These attacks are really troublesome for the users who have an immediate need to launch a website and retrieve information or process a transaction online (Morley & Parker 2009, pp. 383-384). Such attacks are, hence, widely discussed by researchers and the debate relating to the causes, effects and prevention of such attacks has been continuously given attention. This paper aims to analyze the causes, effects and reasons behind denial-of-service attacks. Denial-of-attack refers to a situation created by an attacker with an aim to stop or make difficult for the legitimate users from accessing the information they require or using services offered onl ine (Komar et. Al., 2003, p. 99). An attacker may affect the performance of the network or the computer system of the user or the computers and network of the website that the user is trying to get access to (Zhang, Zheng & Ma 2008 p. 588). An attacker may be able to stop users from getting access to the emails, chat databases, websites, online services like banking, online educational websites etc and so on (Vacca 2007 p. 238). It is important to understand the ways in which an attacker manipulates or worsens the situation of the network and its working abilities. The most common method used by attackers of Denial-of-service attack is the use of massive amounts of information to slow down the network. The ‘flood’ of information or massive requests for access to a site for viewing the information uploaded there, prevents a number of legitimate users from gaining access (Das & Gulati 2004, p. 214). Servers are designed to process a limited number of access requests or in formation