Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks: What You Need to Know

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Solutions Brief Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks: What You Need to Know DoS attacks are one of the fastest-growing cyber security threats, increasing by 132% from Q2 2014 to Q2 2015.1 44% of cyber attacks on retailers in 2014 were DoS attacks, making it the most common digital threat facing the retail industry.2

What is DoS? Denial-of-Service (DoS) is a type of cyber attack in which a malicious entity targets a host server or network resource, attempting to render it unusable by the host’s customer base.

Why are DoS attacks detrimental for retailers? The impacts of a DoS attack can extend far beyond a temporary loss of revenue. When your customer base can’t reach your site, they lose confidence in your brand. Outages prevent your partners from conducting business, which impacts operations and service delivery. • 47% of web users expect a website to load in under two seconds3 • 75% of retail customers will choose to visit a ompetitor’s site rather than endure website delays and technical difficulties

What are the types of DoS attacks? 1. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack Typically launched with the goal of resource exhaustion or bandwidth saturation, a DDoS attack is a coordinated effort by multiple malicious entities to overload a server or network resource with more work than it can its bandwidth can handle. The customer may not be able to launch the affected website or resource, or if they can, any further action may be impeded.

2. Domain Name System (DNS) Attack Cyber attackers can capture the DNS server that translates your website, allowing them to: • Route traffic intended for your site to a server (or site) of the their choosing • Catalog personal information and traffic data from your customers • Send email to your customers that looks like it from your organization4

3. Network Infrastructure Attack Cyber attackers are adept at infiltrating network infrastructure by masquerading as a trusted entity. • IP Spoofing: an attacker sends messages to your network from an IP address that mimics that of a trusted source, gaining unauthorized access to your network5 • Router Attack: an attacker pretends to be a trusted network router and can then interrupt or modify routing updates

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Learning Tree

Solutions Brief Denial of Service attacks comprise the most common cyber threat to retailers today. Arming your IT staff with cyber security and incident response skills is your best defense to quickly identify and mitigate these types of attacks.” – Amin Lalji, Cyber Security Expert and Learning Tree Course Author & Instructor

How can retailers mitigate DoS attacks?

Encourage your staff to “think in the security context.”

Design, test and implement a DoS attack mitigation plan.

While all retail employees need to apply cyber security best practices daily (for instance, when opening emails with attachments), a network analyst would likely be keeping security top-of-mind more so than a frontline retail clerk. “Thinking in the Security Context” is a practical threat management mindset, and how that mindset in employed by staff should be tailored to the requirements of individual staff roles.

Being prepared for an attack is the best defense you have when attackers start knocking at your door. A well thought-out and thoroughly-tested mitigation plan ensures that your network will be available for your customers as soon as possible.

Ensure your staff is implementing security best practices. According to the 2015 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report for the retail industry, the majority of cyber attacks “exploited known vulnerabilities where a patch has been available for months, often years.”6 Make sure your IT staff is installing and maintaining anti-virus software and firewall as a first defense against would-be attackers.

Train staff in Networking, Cyber Security and Incident Response. A well-trained staff is the best defense against DoS attacks. A successful cyber security training plan includes:

Know the signs of an active attack.

• Assessing the skills and mindset of your current staff

Technical issues with your network can occur for a variety of reasons, but knowing the tell-tale signs of a DoS attack can decrease your response time and lessen the impact to your customers. The US-CERT identifies 4 common symptoms of a DoS or DDoS attack:7

• Training tailored to the needs of your staff, ensuring you have the right people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time • A long-term strategy to test and train your staff to ensure lasting success

1. Unusually slow network performance (opening files or accessing websites) 2. Unavailability of a particular website 3. Inability to access any website 4. Dramatic increase in the amount of spam you receive in your account

https://www.stateoftheinternet.com/resources-cloud-security-2015-q2-web-security-report.html http://www.verizonenterprise.com/resources/reports/rp_dbir-retail-2015_en_xg.pdf https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140516013608-1981105-the-importance-of-website-loading-speed-top-3-factors-that-limit-website-speed 4 http://www.csoonline.com/article/2133916/malware-cybercrime/three-types-of-dns-attacks-and-how-to-deal-with-them.html 5 http://www.veracode.com/security/spoofing-attack 6 http://www.verizonenterprise.com/resources/reports/rp_dbir-retail-2015_en_xg.pdf 7 https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST04-015 1 2 3

Prepare Your Staff to Defend Against Cyber Attacks! Learning Tree offers Expert and Specialist Certifications in many Cyber Security specialty areas. Take the first step toward effectively defending against Cyber Security threats by visiting LearningTree.com/CyberCert

1-800-843-8733 LearningTree.com

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