Section 5.7. DoS Defense Strategy

5.7. DoS Defense Strategy

With some exceptions (such as with vulnerabilities that can be easily fixed) DoS attacks are very difficult to defend against. The main problem remains being able to distinguish legitimate requests from requests belonging to an attack.

The chapter concludes with a strategy for handling DoS attacks:

1. Treat DoS attacks as one of many possible risks. Your assessment about the risk will influence the way you prepare your defense.

2. Learn about the content hosted on the server. It may be possible to improve software characteristics (and make it less susceptible to DoS attacks) in advance.

3. Determine what you will do when various types of attacks occur. For example, have the contact details of your upstream provider ready.

4. Monitor server operation to detect attacks as soon as possible.

5. Act promptly when attacked.

6. If attacks increase, install automated tools for defense.