Network System Attacks Course 2022

Network System Attacks
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Network Attacks
Network attacks are processes means, methods or ways that network security is interfered
with through malicious activities1. These are attacks and threats that interfere with the integrity,
confidentiality, and availability of an organization or network's data. Therefore, network attacks
are either remotely or physically executed to be effective.
Reasons for Network Attack.
As discussed, network attacks are executed by individuals who would like to alter the
eligibility of a system. In the past, it has been reported that organizations such as Facebook have
been selling personal data to other organization for business purposes. Therefore, networks are
purposely attacked to acquire or expose personal for use to the attackers' advantage. An attack
can be launched to slow down the network and potentially lead to the loss of service and market
share2.
Name of Attack
Denial of Service Attack
The attack otherwise known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) is a remotely
executed form of attack that is aimed at slowing down servers and services such as websites. The
malicious activity of the attack is executed by multiple computers to a target such as a server3.
The attack forces the system with packets of data that causes the system to slow down, shut
down or eventually crash.
How It Works
1 Swildens, Eric Sven-Johan, Zaide Liu, and Richard David Day. "Method and system for
handling computer network attacks." U.S. Patent 8,612,564, issued December 17, 2013
2Pawar, Mohan V., and J. Anuradha. "Network Security and Types of Attacks in
Network". Procedia Computer Science 48 (2015): 503-506.
3 Ibid.,

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The intruder or the attacker footprints the intended network to attack. Footprinting is the
process that the hacker uses to study the system to discover a weakness to be as an advantage
point. Once the vulnerability has been identified by the hacker, the computer will then be used as
the master DDoS to inject malware into the system. Usually, this system works as the intruder
bypasses authentication controls or infects the system with malware that allows him to gain
control of the whole network. The computer under the control of the attacker is referred to as a
zombie. The ‘zombie' computer allows the attacker to establish a command and control server
that is used to control other computers.
Type of DDoS Attacks and How They Work
A network system is composed of several layers that constitute how data is generated,
transported and responded through the network4. As such, different DDoS attacks are targeted to
different sections of a network. For example,
HTTP Flood
This attack is similar to when a server receives multiple commands through HTTP
protocols. The attackers through the zombie control other computers and he will generate
multiple HTTP links to the server that is directed to the server. This overwhelms the controls
leading to a denial of service to other users.
SYN Flooding
This attack threatens transmission control protocols by sending a target in the system
large numbers of connections. The target computer responds to all the connections send then
4 ZHANG, Jie, and Zheng Qin. 2010. "Modified Method Of Detecting DDoS Attacks Based On
Entropy". Journal of Computer Applications 30 (7): 1778-1781.