What is the best way to maintain TCP/IP-based services during a DDoS attack?

1 Why TCP/IP-based services are vulnerable

TCP/IP is the most widely used protocol suite for network communication, but it also has some inherent security weaknesses that make it vulnerable to DDoS attacks. For example, TCP uses a three-way handshake to establish a connection between a client and a server, which requires the server to allocate resources and keep track of each connection. An attacker can exploit this by sending a large number of spoofed or incomplete connection requests, known as SYN floods, to exhaust the server's memory and processing power. IP, on the other hand, does not have built-in authentication or encryption mechanisms, which allows an attacker to manipulate or forge IP packets, such as IP fragmentation attacks or IP spoofing attacks, to bypass firewalls or routers and reach the target service.

2 How to detect a DDoS attack

Detecting a DDoS attack as soon as possible is an important step in maintaining TCP/IP-based services. There are several indicators that can help you identify a DDoS attack, such as a sudden and significant increase in network traffic or bandwidth consumption, a high number of connection requests or errors on the server logs, slow or unresponsive service or application performance, and a loss of connectivity or availability of the service or network. To monitor and analyze your network traffic, you can use various tools and methods, such as network performance management software to measure and visualize the network metrics and trends, intrusion detection systems or intrusion prevention systems to detect and block anomalous or malicious traffic patterns, and packet capture and analysis tools to inspect and decode the network packets.

5 Here’s what else to consider

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