How Do You Know If You Are Being Hit With A DDoS Attack?

May 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In order to stop a DDoS attack, you have to know what you’re up against. In a distributed denial of service attack, multiple computer systems, compromised by a malware or virus relentlessly send traffic to a target network or machine. This attack makes computer or network resources unavailable to users.

Before taking any remedial action when a DDOS attack is suspected, it is important to check that the slow service delivery is as a result of lagging internet connection. The United States Computer Readiness Team or US-CERT gives a list of symptoms that serve as pointers that your computer resources may be under attack. An unusually slow network performance where accessing or opening files or websites drags, the unavailability of a web resource, disconnection of an intranet or internet link and a dramatic increase in the number of spam mail received.

DDOS attacks can also manifest as problems in the network branches adjacent to the computer system under attack and can serve as a great alert to network administrators.

In cases where DDOS attacks are initiated on a very large scale, internet connections in entire geographical areas surrounding the target machines may be affected. To determine is a computer resource is under DDOS attack, network administrators can go to the command prompt and attempt to ping outside their network, normally to a website like Google.com. By observing the time and also the percentage of packets lost displayed in the ping statistics, a correct diagnosis can be made concerning the state of the network.

The time it takes to transmit 32 bytes of data is normally about 40ms. At the initial stages of a DDOS, this may take 800ms. The computer system will eventually respond with a “Request Timed Out”. By identifying the initial stages of a DDOS attack it is possible to prevent your computer and network resources from completely being taken offline.

For more details concerning what is happening on the network, administrators can make use of NETSTAT. This allows the administrator to see all the current TCP/IP connections. A large number of TCP/IP connections from the same IP address is usually a good indication of an attack. You can confirm that an attack is in progress when the state of these connections indicates SYN_RECEIVED.

To find out the IP address targeting your network, run the TCPView program or any program that indicates all the current connections on a computer.

Author Bio. Casey King is a cyber security professional that helps companies and website owners stay online with industry leading DDoS protection and professional web hosting solutions.

 

 

Filed Under: Computing, Web Security

A Software Development Success Story

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The world of software development is a competitive one, with companies everywhere vying with one another for business, sometimes at the expense of quality, so it is heartening to bring you news of one company that is forging a growing reputation for the quality of its work. Prog4Biz is a software development company concentrating primarily on the development of database solutions for companies large and small, including many well-known household names. Among the core products developed by the company are Customer Relationship Management tools to help increase productivity, drive sales and increase turnover, as well as Content Management Systems designed to make setting up and running websites simplicity itself, both for the owner/operator and for professional website creators alike.

Established over seven years ago, Prog4Biz software development boast operations in both Canada and in Israel, the business takes a holistic approach to its design work, often engaging with clients at the earliest stage of the process in order to get a true feel for their requirements, before taking projects all the way through to design, development and completion.

Part of the reason for developing and refining this approach to customers projects is that Prog4Biz recognise that in today’s ever more competitive business environment cost has become a major consideration for all, so they ensure they work with customers from the outset in order to achieve a solution which not only meets the needs and demands of each customer’s business operations, but just as importantly fits in with their budget.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Online Learning, SEO, Web Design, Web Security

Choosing A Hackproof Password

February 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Locked out of your email again? Frustrating isn’t it? What you need is a password that’s not only easy to remember but just as importantly is hard to crack. This, incidentally, rules out the world famous – or should that be notorious -  ‘password’. It tops a list of the most commonly used passwords that you will probably not be surprised to learn includes number 1-6, letters a-f, letmein and password1 and, if they were not simple enough to crack in the first place, they are also all online for hackers to see.

And it’s not just your personal email accounts you need to pay attention to, but any business ones as well, whether you are a solicitor,  a carpet cleaner or a firm of locksmiths, it’s essential to keep your business free from hackers.

To come up with a password which will have the hackers confounded, opt for six or more jumbled characters based on a meaningful sentence or line of poetry, ideally with a mix of upper and lowercase letters and numbers, as well as something like a punctuation mark, just to round things off. Pick a phrase like ‘I want to go to America”, and use the first letter of every word except for ‘to’ which becomes ‘2’. You will then up with ‘Iw2g2A’ which won’t make sense to anyone else, but has the advantage of being easy enough to remember.

Obviously you should use different passwords for different sites 0- that really should go without saying. But do not worry that you will have to remember a plethora of different passwords. Once you’ve chosen your master password, you can customise it for different websites. Add the first and last letters of the company name at each end (so, for instance, when logging onto Amazon, it would be Aiw2g2An) and even if it’s hacked, your other accounts will stay secure.

Image “Lens Password” by Salvatore Vuono, courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

Filed Under: Online Learning, Web Security

Increasing Popularity of Laptops and Other Gadgets in Today’s Developing World

December 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With the gradual advancement of technology, people have come up with various appliances for making life simpler. So, increasingly, life has become dependent on appliances like the  mobile phone, iPod, computer, laptop, digital camera and many more. These gadgets are quite costly and you have to take good care of them. Despite being manufactured by the best companies in the market, these devices are still subject to normal wear and tear or damages. So you need to recognise that at  anytime your favorite and expensive gadget can get damaged. In such a situation it can be really tough to replace the damaged appliance with a new one. If you have gadget insurance then it will be easier to deal with the problem.

Laptops are compact and small in size. The latest ranges of laptops available from some of the best manufacturers can be expensive. These are loaded with the best  multimedia and official applications with which you can access the internet and cover any kind of work . They have the added benefit that you can travel light with these sleek  devices .

With these devices modern day professionals are capable of accessing all kinds of functions that are necessary for their  work. WI- Fi connectivity and portable internet connection enable quick and easy internet connections.

Some of the most noteworthy changes have come about in the fields of communication and entertainment. The mobile phone or smartphone is one such example. In this day and age there are very few people who do not own a mobile phone, irrespective of their economic status. And the demand for them is increasing in leaps and bounds. In days gone by, you had to book a trunk call through a landline and await connection. But with the advent of the mobile phone calling people in any corner of the world is no hassle. Similarly, portable media players are a must-have item for the younger generation and you will find youngsters everywhere listening to music with these products.

With the demand for gadgets, the need for gadget insurance is also increasing. http://uk.protectyourbubble.com/li-laptop-insurance.html is helping gadget lovers in getting their laptops and other gadgets insured in an easy and affordable way. Today, it seems we just can’t live without a mobile phone or laptop. This simply goes to show that tech gadgets play a very major role in everyone’s lives today, no matter whether you are talking about a child, an adolescent or an adult.

Filed Under: Sotware, Web Security

How To Avoid The Scammers

December 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Christmas is suposed to be the season of goodwill to all men, but as more of us than ever before prefer to do our Christmas shopping online, so the opportunities for cyber criminals increase. The situation is exacerbated because more than thirty three percent of internet users do so without any form of security protection for their PC or Mac, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

So if you intend to shop online this year keep up to date with genuine best deals and offers by consulting a personal finance blog or cost comparison site and keeping a weather eye out for the following tricks and scams:

Social Media

Crooks are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook or Twitter to try to cheat consumers during the busy festive period. Be careful before liking fan pages or clicking on bogus notices from friends’ accounts that could have fallen prey to hackers. The watchword should be – if in doubt, stay away. Many of these scams use blind, truncated links which are often fake, designed to trick you into disclosing confidential personal information.

Apps Scams

Another area where the scammers are turning their attention is in relation to malicious apps for smartphones. Its recommended that you only download apps from official stores. There are a number of software products such as McAfee Mobile Security which can offer protection here.

Gift Scams

Many gadgets like the new iPhone or iPad, as well as devices like the Kindle Fire, are high on people’s wanted list this year as presents and the scammers know that this gives them yet another opportunity to rip people off. Beware competitions or special deals with offers on the latest must-have gadgets. They are often designed to grab your attention and then deceive you into either disclosing personal data or visiting a malicious link that could introduce a virus or other malware onto your computer. If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it probably is.

Filed Under: Web Security
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